Trailer Park, Valdosta, Georgia, 1983

With the windows open you can hear
the whisper of the traffic on I-75
telling you there’s a world
occurring elsewhere.
You console yourself with TV,
fortified wine, occasional 8-ball
at a tavern a mile away.
Days at the chair factory
make you glad to get home
until the cars on I-75
get into your ear, like the voice
of a lover on the phone,
saying, “I don’t know you, Honey,
but come on home.”

The poetry and prose of Robert L. Penick have appeared in well over 100 different literary journals, including The Hudson Review, North American Review, Plainsongs, and Oxford Magazine. His latest chapbook is Exit, Stage Left, by Slipstream Press, and more of his work can be found at theartofmercy.net