Vacations
where grass
peeled off
in great ribbons
as we rode
against sand
and clouds
on blacktop
collapsing
into grays
while father’s
cigarette
wound its own
unraveled
pirouette.
Wires bowed
and waved
from poles
where fenceposts
wore boots.
These hometowns
packed with strangers
and children’s
bright
plastic trikes and slides.
We drove
into roadside
motels in gravel
lots washed
in neon.
About the Author: Michael Catherwood’s awards include a Nebraska Arts Council Grant, Pushcart Nomination, The Holt Prize for Poetry, and Finalist for the Ruth Lily Prize. His books are Dare, If You Turned Around Quickly, Projector, from Stephen F. Austin Press, and Near Misses from WSC Press. He’s former editor at The Backwaters Press, and he was Associate Editor at Plainsongs since 1995. Recent poems have appeared in The Opiate, As It Ought to Be Magazine, The Corpus Callosum, Pennsylvania English, Ginosko Literary Journal, Zoetic Press, and The Common. He’s a cancer survivor, retired, and lives in Omaha with his wife, Cindy.
Image Credit: John Margolies: “Chico’s Motel, Forest, Mississippi” (1982) Public domain image courtesy of The Library of Congress.
As It Ought To Be 