Janet Brice Parker
History's Highway poem.
HISTORY’S HIGHWAY
Payne's gray pavement.
White lines travel through the center
of bleak asphalt.
Only narrow strips of light hold her focus.
A contrasting ribbon looks connected
from a distance, like her deceiving persona.
but the monotonous repetitive patterns
quickly break apart as she breaks in despair.
Spheres of lights flicker
against black mountains
as she moves toward a desolate destination.
Thin utility lines flow with hills and valleys
like her fragile life lines.
They abruptly extend to the other side,
crisscrossing patterns of confusion.
A sepia photograph on a sunless day
a moment in time.
A life, burned around the edges.