WHEN A TOWN SLOWLY DIES

sun bleached
flaking paint
faded and tattered
streamers
and banners
and flags
and keep out signs
boarded up windows
no longer warming this home
black and grey asphalt cracking
and crumbling
one continuous pothole
narrowing up and up and up
into an Ozark density
amber saffron tape
wrapped around
– an empty house
– a pink house
– a burned house
solitary brick chimneys
rise among chars
antique red fire hydrants
line main street
pristinely maintained
inadequate to fight fires
hoping to save something

Brenda Linkeman has published two books of poetry by Spartan Press: “This Unexpected Life” in 2022, and “Birds in Flight” in 2024. She has poetry published in “The Trailer Park Quarterly “, Gasconade Reviews, “Strange Gods of the Prairie” and “Wolf at the Door – Nobody Home.” Poems accepted for future publications include “Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku,” and “Watermelon Seeds.” Brenda regularly participates in poetry readings and open mic sponsored by the Osage Arts Community in Belle, Missouri. She resides in Missouri in a restored yellow, farm house, with her two cats, Ebony and Milo, on two lots with plenty of room for trees and a garden.