The smoke’s socked us in.
Can’t see a mile
down the road
here to Canada…
Thursday morning, route ’93,
I’m behind a truck
with Bradford flaps, farrier boxes
and a license plate:
SHOE4U.
I’ve seen him before but today
the grime on his bumper sticker’s
wiped clean—
Hope for the best
expect the worst
deal with what you get.
He lurches forward
belching exhaust
into already sultry air
and I turn left
to see an old green
school bus parked
at Arnie’s Gas & Tire,
Navajo Fire Scouts
piling off
for a cold Coca-Cola,
maybe a call home.
I want to thank them, those boys
with suits bunched at their waists
pants and boots shuffling
toward the glass door.
—
Jessica Jones is on full-time faculty at Kent State University where she teaches creative writing, Native American literature and place-based composition. She comes from a long line of makers and musicians in Northern Appalachia where trees and animals were among her first teachers. She holds a Masters from the University Montana, and regularly returns to see loved ones and teach/learn on the Flathead and Blackfeet Indian Reservations. Her chapbook, Bitterroot (2018), can be found at Finishing Line Press.
