I grew up near
a two-cat place,
the oldest town in
California not birthed as
a hatchery for cities.
Cities progress:
box store building blocks
knocked over
by urbanist toddlers,
the Wild West mystique
suffocated
beneath the blooded remnants
of new expansion.
If we concrete our problems
away
we can ignore
the wide open spaces
that burn
at the center of our hearts.
In the rush of gold
maybe we’ll find riches:
cracked glass treasures
laid over the skeleton
of forgotten names.
Maybe we’ll become a Diamondback
lacking a tongue,
lacking a mouth,
lacking a voice.
Alison McBain is an award-winning author with nearly 100 short works published, including prose/poetry in Litro, FLAPPERHOUSE, and The Airgonaut. Last year, her poem “Assimilation” was nominated for the Puschart Prize, and her debut fantasy novel The Rose Queen was named one of the best books of 2018 by the reviewer website Bookshine and Readbows. In her spare time, she is the Book Reviews Editor for Bewildering stories, and the lead editor of the small press publisher Fairfield Scribes.
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