By Richard Peabody
A tunnel of puckish red bud trees blooming on opposite sides of a country road,
which unwinds like a lariat through river valley towns long abandoned save for motels,
used car lots, a smattering of fields sporting sheds, RVs, or Camper Vans, and then the ubiquitous car washes and self-storage units.
Road signs announce the Virginia Diner, an occasional solar farm, or else:
Bacon
Pork
Jowls
and
Molasses
Ham
Sausage
“I see them.”
“You’re blind as a bat.”
One-story houses without basements.
“I can really see them.”
Diners
Drive-ins
and Dives
“I can.”
“In your dreams.”
Pink insulation scattered in the ditches for miles along I-95. Sometimes green.
Filaments drifting in the air like the man on the flying trapeze.
The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process
The Arts are tribal, the place where we find our people, the alternative to our birth family. The Arts are the connective tissue, where images and ideas are shared and riffed on by people who share the creative urge. That community is what makes anthologies like this one both
necessary and fun. And that resonates down through the years.
What was the inspiration for your creative work?
Driving from Richmond, VA to Washington, D.C.
Tell us something about the natural world that you love and don’t wish to lose. What are your thoughts on the kind of world we are leaving for the next generation?
The National Parks are a magical dreamscape, and if we lose them due to industrial greed
there will be nothing left but cities and the wasteland between them.
