Pit Stop in Kansas

by Elizabeth Dennison

The rattle and clank of our U-Haul
woke the sleeping dogs
who woke the sleeping man—he raved
and kicked the wall of his screened-in porch.

The diner was closed for the night
or forever, but we got out anyway
boots chomping at the gravel
to press our noses against the pane.

More houses flamed up around us
curtains parted and people peered.
I wanted to ask how they root down
so deep in a place between this and that.

But we drove on through
the blue seal of morning as the turbines
turned and winked out their hearts
like a thousand ships in the fog.

Elizabeth Dennison is a writer, marketer, and mother of three based in Colorado. Originally from Boston, she received the Mary L. Carver Poetry Prize at Colby College where she studied English and creative writing. She now enjoys attending poetry workshops at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver. Find her on Instagram and Twitter at @lizkoneill.