Current Issue: Fall/Winter 2010

Dear Empire [These are your interstates]  
Oliver de la Paz

Dear Empire,

These are your interstates. Their reach spindles out from the center of the continent, thin strands of roads like rays of asphalt from a source. Along each byway, there are many signs with your bright-hued countenance. Everywhere we go, you are with us. The mile markers stretch and yaw.

Yellow lines mesmerize drivers; their tire treads hum from the washboarded roads. In the high deserts, the heat makes the whole scene look like it’s underwater. And the suicides collide into the radiator grills. Your smiling face beams into the sunroofs, into the rearview mirrors. As much as we try to leave you, we keep spooling back.

 

Oliver de la Paz is the author of three collections of poetry, Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, and most recently, Requiem for the Orchard. His work has appeared in The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Tin House, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at Western Washington University.