By Joe Johnston
there is a little motel on the back highway,
seven cabins and a clubhouse and a pool.
cabins three and six pulse with flypaper
every September but they're rarely booked
except for high school homecoming and
after prom in the spring when the sunflowers
are a distant postcard. An RC Cola machine
hums outside the front office, the blue and red
faded from too many summers and too few
quarters dropped into the slot week in and out.
Where I'm from progress is measured via
stringers of panfish and the price of gasoline.
Time forgets and timekeepers make slingshots and
whiskey cocktails and egg concoctions, hoping
for a FedEx delivery of chirking cheer among the
football fall and pending river freeze. The motel
is called the Sail Inn. The sheets are blue and have
sailboats and life preservers repeating crosswise.
About Joe Johnston
Joseph Johnston is a writer and filmmaker from Michigan. His work has appeared in Midwestern Gothic, Old Northwest Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Arcadia. He is currently working on a documentary about boxing in Detroit.
there is a little motel on the back highway,
seven cabins and a clubhouse and a pool.
cabins three and six pulse with flypaper
every September but they're rarely booked
except for high school homecoming and
after prom in the spring when the sunflowers
are a distant postcard. An RC Cola machine
hums outside the front office, the blue and red
faded from too many summers and too few
quarters dropped into the slot week in and out.
Where I'm from progress is measured via
stringers of panfish and the price of gasoline.
Time forgets and timekeepers make slingshots and
whiskey cocktails and egg concoctions, hoping
for a FedEx delivery of chirking cheer among the
football fall and pending river freeze. The motel
is called the Sail Inn. The sheets are blue and have
sailboats and life preservers repeating crosswise.
About Joe Johnston
Joseph Johnston is a writer and filmmaker from Michigan. His work has appeared in Midwestern Gothic, Old Northwest Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Arcadia. He is currently working on a documentary about boxing in Detroit.