The Driveway
By Dominique M. Snedeker
January 15, 2023
January 15, 2023
|
I wander down the lane—no, it’s a driveway—
a meandering crick of gravel and washboard. The hill above has let loose again, disgorged soil to slide onto the road below, blocking all exit, except by foot. Lucky me I am young and spent the night and have nowhere else to rush. But Grandpa must get the tractor and push widowed trees down the other side, down the slope that opens before pasture land—which will take all day without help, and I’m none—so that maybe then, tomorrow, they can shuffle their aged, polyester lined limbs down the ramp and into the gloriously wide Cadillac, she in skirt and he in bolo tie. They both wear hats to church. I wander down the lane—post-storm the air is heavy and wet, a filter casting everything vibrant, green, newly reborn, except the pines that cross the road, their roots dangling mid-air or clinging desperately to earth. How old were they? Did they deserve another hundred years? But the neighbors up above in their haughty folly rebuffed Grandpa’s advice to keep the bushes and vegetation thick. Now feet of back-yard bury those giants fallen below, those homes for squirrels, and crows, and bugs forlornly blocking the path that only I can navigate. I wander down the lane—alone, wind whipping as rain and tears cloud my vision; I remember those logs, now long since burned in Grandpa’s black potbellied stove fueling Grandma’s tea, or maybe a carefully rolled pie. I walk this long, winding—meandering—lane alone, one last time, to say goodbye. |
Dominique M. Snedeker, an Air Force Academy graduate with an English Literature degree, is a veteran and military spouse, currently residing with her husband and three boys in Minot, North Dakota. Dominique’s debut poetry book, Motherhood: The Crucible of Love explores the existential crisis of parents adjusting to selflessness and sleeplessness. Her second book, cold. Untamed Beauty, lovingly examines how the looming negative degree weather shapes interactions between self and place. Stay tuned for Motherhood: Empire of Lost Toys and Mismatched Socks. Find her at www.dmsnedeker.com or follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @dmsnedeker.
|