flashquake Poetry

THE BALLAD OF RAYMOND AND RUTHIE, OR: WHY SECOND CHANCES WORK, AWAY FROM HOME
by Melanie Faith

Raymond and Ruthie are cupping the open desert, a rental car resembling the borrowed feeling of their lives, the unbending highway, 66, oft-dreamt oasis, worn route grown infamous but they have never passed this way. Clouds overhead play passenger to their speech of can-this-be-happening-to-us, everything is alive with the nearness of new: Ruthie sounds-out the saguaro’s name, tracing the guidebook’s spine as she never could a stinging side, Raymond’s easy agreement when the cacti seem to Ruthie as stringy fingers waving past them, picture-perfect in the drowsy desert, they are as before the vows. Following America’s Main Street, at last storing wishes in the yucca basket from the road-side stand, each Spanish mission converting the fissure between them to a smooth seam. Gold-dust glittering in the sun’s sinking eye, seeming a peaceable shelter, they navigate, together, into an adobe-cool night.

Copyright 2003 by Melanie Faith

HOME | Contributors | Archives | Contact | Guidelines