Frontage Road

Rather than interstate 85

I preferred to take the frontage road

To and from school

It was wild and hilly

Stained burnt orange

From frequent downpours

That Piedmont dirt bled everywhere

The kudzu was dangling

From skeleton trees

A loveseat in a 1960s technicolor

Green and brown fade

Was in the shoulder

At the lowest dip in the road

Before the sun-bleached stop sign

 

I pulled over to take a snap

With my daddy’s 35 mm Pentax

How satisfying it was to press the shutter release

And to hear the click

As my thumb advanced the film

Which was cradled below

Safely encased in its spool

 

Sometimes I would circuit

The whole frontage road

Between my exit and the school

Just to pay my respects

To the giant peachoid watertank

And to the Possum Trot one room schoolhouse

Such exotic roadside attractions

Piqued the mind and eyes of this

New Jersey-born but southern girl.

 

By Tabassam Shah, Clarion PA