SawTheSky

Lilac Bush by Vincent Van Gogh

Plastic Flowers

On the corner, between two paths –

Where lilacs bloom in the ditches,

I wave goodbye to a winding dirt road.

Rows of corn and slender trees flutter back,

Though I wonder if they are imploring me to stay.

I cross state lines and nothing changes –

No God strikes me down, the skies stay clear,

And I feel sick – had it always been this easy?

I almost expected to be turned away,

That my hands would wrench the wheel

And I would go right back to where I started.

But while the wheels turn, I won’t look back.

Four states pass by, the radio crackles,

And in the static I almost hear my dad’s voice

Asking me to watch a storm from our front porch.

I pass a gas station; I can no longer recognize the name.

Widening roads tell me I’m almost there – 

Who knew skyscrapers soared far higher than grain bins?

This city feeds itself on every corner; I’ve only tried two,

And no one knows my usual order.

The sidewalks here look pristine, untouched –

No cracks with weeds poking through.

The easy lull of conversation feels foreign here,

I don’t know these faces; they don’t know me –

And when the cashiers call out, “Next,”

it almost feels like a nickname.

I wonder if anyone here has smelled fresh lilacs,

Though I don’t know anyone well enough to ask.

But I doubt it. Only plastic flowers in these ditches.

~ Videl Sky