Traveling Highway Forty, by Amy Wilson

Pink sin­gle-wide
plopped in a pasture
that hous­es my favorite billboard,
“Cur­tis Watson’s Cat­fish Restaurant:
Free Corn­bread Basket.”

I used to drink whiskey every time I ate catfish
Vern shares.

Vern, Lucille
last table
Delta Café.

Hop in
Vern says,
jumper cables
not churning
my truck battery
one iota.

Junior year
’02,
I left a keg party
for a guy
liv­ing in a cow field
just like this one
where Cur­tis Watson
lives.

Futon thrown on green shag,

Sad­dle up on top

ride me like a stud

not some Clydesdale

and say ‘Fuck’

Fuck my twat Dwayne.’

Wing-Nut
the Ger­man Shepherd
gnaw­ing on Spam,
Wing Nut’s turds
the size of ash trays.Mom’s boyfriend, RJ,
pee­ing in our shower,

Saves toi­let paper,”
RJ pinch­ing my ass
boobs, thighs
daily.

II.

Fire­lake Indi­an Casi­no exit,
Lucille says
if she, Vern
still “booz­ers-delux­e‑o”
they’d be at home
bust­ing each other’s noses.

I frac­tured Vern’s wrist

a black-out.

Stabbed my arm

a knit­ting needle

think­ing my arm

was Vern’s–

that’s when we found recovery.

I stayed in Dwayne’s trail­er three days.
Dwayne’s Grandma
chain smok­ing Winstons
from her wheelchair,
adult diaper
not changed during
Cops, All My Children
cuz she’d bite.

McCloud Exit,
Lucille gifts
Wheat Chex-pret­zel mix,
Me, Vern, Lucille,
I‑Trav­eled-To-Hell
club members,
invis­i­ble t‑shirts
safe­ty orange,
“ Survivor”
etched in red.

Amy Susan Wil­son has recent­ly pub­lished in South­ern Women’s Review, Southern
Lit­er­ary Review, Cyber­soleil, Dead Mule, Crosstim­bers, Red Riv­er Review, The Lit­er­ary Lawyer, Red Dirt Review, and in oth­er sim­i­lar pub­li­ca­tions. Amy Susan is the Founder and Pub­lish­er of Red Truck Review: A Forum of South­ern Lit­er­a­ture and Cul­ture, forth­com­ing Sep­tem­ber 2013; www​.face​book​.com/​r​e​d​t​r​u​c​k​r​e​v​iew. Amy lives in Shawnee, Okla­homa, one of the world’s few towns that boasts both an oper­a­tional K‑Mart and go-cart race track adja­cent to June’s Sno-Cone Shak, Home of Nine­ty-Nine Flavors.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.