red booth

Quit the K-Mart she'd worked at since high school                 
Stopped on the way home
To break up 
With the only boy 
She'd ever kissed
 
Pulled a suitcase
From the top shelf 
Of the hall closet
Where it'd sat since the field trip 
To Savannah in the seventh grade
 
Stuffed blue jeans 
And tee shirts and tennis shoes
A few photographs 
And the dress she'd worn On New Years Eve 
Into the trunk of her 89 Toyota
 
Rushed onto the interstate 
Ripped off the rear-view mirror 
Determined to make
The state line 
Before sun-up.
 

- Jason Kelly Richards