many roads lead to town
many roads lead to town
but I choose the one that bypasses
the newly raped intersection
the massacre of old cottonwoods
(the farms look nude and embarrassed
like someone has ripped down their shower curtain
shampoo still running down their backs)
the day after they hit the ground
the crew arrives with the jumbo chipper
and finds bouquets of blue delphinium
wrapped in black ribbon on every stump
black exhaust billows into the air
swirling around the roar of the machinery
and a meadowlark sits on an orange traffic cone
and sings
copyright Megan E. Freeman
originally published in Visitant Literary Magazine