Off The Hook by Beth Achenbach She smells of perfume and smoke, her dangling hook has caught so many people that adore her. Today she is letting them loose as she drives towards the blue and clouds. The rusty vision of that car, her graying hair waving in the wind. The woman is escaping from this old city. A place called home, but now littered with waste and nature overgrown. Wildness spills out of it’s cracks as clunky trucks carry their loads, dead parts of the city dumping at an unknown location beyond the concrete barriers. Brick walls once brilliant with their reddish facades now crumble to the touch. Windows boarded up with warped plywood from the frequent rains haven’t seen the light in years. The woman crosses over the city limits trying not to be overcome with the heaviness that she will never return. She deeply inhales the new air, turns up the old car’s radio and tosses her mask out the window with the exhalation, the promise of new beginnings. How it was
Poetry and Observations by Beth Achenbach