En Route 301 to Bowling Green, Virginia

by Amanda A. Gibson


The road sweeps past brick ranchers and graceful Capes and modular homes, a rust-worn Esso sign, corn and soybeans on the rise, swampy forest on the dip, encounters the Frog Level Volunteer Fire Department, the Paint Me Pretty salon, and a vacant Penola food mart, then sails by a mailbox in conversation with stuffed armchairs and a sofa, backyard storage sheds, ivy and grapevine covered clapboards, miles of soldiering pines, while a cerise 1975 Caddy Coupe de Ville eases along, admiring.


Amanda A. Gibson’s writing has appeared in several journals, including The Common, Orca, A Literary Journal, and Five Minute Lit, for which she was also a readerShe’s working on her second novel. Amanda spends as much time as possible outside.