JULY 10, 2009 12:32PM

The Dirt Road

Rate: 3 Flag

 

That tamped down dirt road

Wandering down the delta

Lingering through the swamp.

 

Can’t get there from here,

All trash and trauma.

Plastic bag ugly.

 

And the dirt--streaked grime

On your socks once white

Now detritus-specked.

 

The mocs and the coppers

Just laying ambush, you know.

Suspicioned , though unseen.

 

Shadowy brambles, ripping the flesh

Stumbling the way.

Guarding the stones.

 

Sunset.  Sundown.

Murky depths tempt.

Waiting.

 

Author tags:

mental shadows, lost, purposeless, guilt, cautionary dreams

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Lovely imagery, rated for the "I never want to be there after dark" bits.
RavingBits
July 10, 2009 03:07 PM
Well first of all.... I wish it wasn't a dirt road... maybe just a dusty road, or even a bike trail? Something with a little less dirt and grime and fewer snakes. (Let's just go for no snakes).

This is a really well-written piece, Mal. The images are terrifying, and I wish you never had to conjure them up.

Good Friday to you.
wakingupslowly
July 10, 2009 03:07 PM
Neither do I, RB, neither do I. . .

I could make light and say at least it's not macadam. Truth is, it is dark and lonely there sometimes, and though not a place I relish, it is a place with which I'm all too familiar.

Thank you both for the comments.
Mal Beck
July 10, 2009 04:01 PM
Ohhhh, I "feel" this picture. Rated.
scupper
July 12, 2009 01:40 PM
What stark imagery you create! And. While nowhere near as talented, may I offer this in response?

Inky skies brighten.
Azure gives way to tiny tendrils of persimmon and gold.
The dawn of a new day beckons.
The dawn of a new life.

It's always darkest before the dawn. Or, so I hear. :)
FabulouslyFlirty
July 12, 2009 07:03 PM
Thanks, scupper. These are stark, but valid, images to me, but I wasn't sure if they would speak to anyone else.

FF: Thanks for the thought (nice images, too). . .though I would add that you make the assumption dawn exists.
Mal Beck
July 14, 2009 10:09 AM
Oh, it exists alright. Not always easy for some to see, I'll grant you. Brave souls, those. The ones who face the dawn. Happy souls, those. The ones who embrace it.
FabulouslyFlirty
July 14, 2009 11:49 AM
For now, I'll have to go with knowing that there are others who can embrace, FF. Thanks for stopping by.
Mal Beck
July 15, 2009 12:11 PM
Are you a Southern writer too? I was born and grew up in Mississippi.

The poem made me think of all the hideous trashlittered roadsides in Oklahoma, where I lived for a while. Or Arizona, where I have lived for nearly 3 years, and which I am about to leave, thank God. Always seemed like a total lack of self-respect to me.

Not limited to the South, either.
hontonoshijin
August 20, 2009 01:06 PM
Mostly Southern, though a bit more cosmopolitan in my latter years, Honto. . .still, the earlier memories linger and now "litter" my brain. Like the old scripture, however, much of what passes for seeds often fall on the hard trail and not fertile ground.
Mal Beck
August 20, 2009 03:19 PM