On Route 290
M. Miranda Maloney
August 8, 2021
A type of Juniper. Nothing clear and cut. Bikman Organic Farm then Bell Farms. What’s ahead?
Bogs D’Arc Lane. Corn and more shucks of corn, and in between, no shaft for light. In the hurricane sky. A semi-truck t-boned my sister sixty miles away.
We’re in Klaus Lane now, across seventy-seven belts of acres. We slaughter down this country lane, zoned for BP, KFC, DQ, HEB, and whatever else builds this way. Stop at the Breakfast Basket for biscuits and gravy. She got banged up—an imprint of round cheek and broad nose on the driver’s side windowpane.
Ahead is Dog Trail, but we must cross Watermelon Fest and Old Potato Road. Here is a trickle of goats. Longhorns and more horns. There’s Friendship Cemetery, with stones and water holes. Said she was on her way to pick a buddy from the airport, flying from Tombstone.
A row of windmills. The orange glow of corn. Soon to be subdivided.
In Gilding, close to Whistle Stop next to Magnolia where the trees are wider. This must be God’s country. A sign reads: All trucks enter here. In his defense, the driver who hit her had a history of depression. But he was caked with amphetamines and on parole that day.
We stop at Carmine. Rows of antique shops line the sidewalks. At Round Top, in the center of Main Street, a white cow lingers, then moos its way to Memory Lane. Before she passed out, she called mom. Said she was afraid; could she fly home?
We take a shortcut to Crossover. Hempstead skirts Heartbreak. Turtle Bayou is drowned in Trinity water while the young, humped trees in Winnie clamor under cat calls of cicadas. She remembers nothing while in the hospital, except her bruised knees; she’s happy she made it out.
M. Miranda Maloney is the author of The Lost Letters of Mileva (Yuguri editorial, Uruguay, 2019), and Cracked Spaces (Pandora Lobo Press, Chicago), forthcoming in August 2021. She is the founder of Mouthfeel Press. She lives in Huntsville, Texas, with her husband, Dan, dog Caspian, and two cats, Edison and Oni. She has three children in college, attending Texas universities.
