What's Between

What's Between

Before we were here they cut 27

straight through the frayed fringe 

of the federal battlefield, left behind 

a vine of withered Georgia towns 

dangling like drought peaches 

from an asphalt stem: Rossville, 

Chickamauga, Rock Spring, Lafayette.

Walker County mows the median 

once, at most, each other month, 

but the municipalities bend the budget 

to keep theirs tight and low, so much so 

that were you not from here 

you still might drive through 

without a map to clarify what’s 

what, and—using only the length  

of wheatgrass as a reference—know

the named thresholds of your goings,

what’s left between and unincorporated

the thing that grows,

                                  goes on growing.