Here I am.

Parked.
My dog Obi, inside.
My wife next to me
scrolling nervously on a phone,
the light illuminating her
worried face.
The sound of a car running its engine.
An open flag lays limp at the entrance.

My medicated mind tired
in Meredith
43 miles away from
a cozy cabin in the woods.

The cabin sits on a lake.
Quiet, quaint, nestled in its haven,
surrounded by loons.

My guitar rests on an emerald green couch
waiting for me.
A vacant hornets nest dangles
Over an old ivory refrigerator.
For fashions sake, I guess.

The hornets nest stares at a shit ton of hats
that let us know that this place
has been around since the Class of 67.
Winona and Williams is its owner.

There are rocks on a mantle that say
this place isn’t half bad, many people have stayed here.
The bed is low to the ground in one room,
high in another.

A lake stares back at you while you stand on a wooden deck.

43 miles back in the other direction,
in a 24 hr veterinary hospital parking lot
in Meredith, New Hampshire,
I am wondering why my dog was
vomiting, sending orange trails of
bloody shit
over the scattered wood chips
next to the fire, the grill
nestled by a lake
cocooned with loons.

Guess I’ll find my answer soon.

 

Jason Wright is the editor and founder of Oddball Magazine. His column appears weekly. His new book is Train of Thought.