1959

by Carl Scharwath

Two children plaster forms

A decorum of  the 1950’s

Embellishment, quietly grace

The family road trip.

 

Baseball cards on the floor

Gum under the seat

A façade of happiness

As billboards  swoop by.

 

Telephone wires, a dizzying array of surrealistic lines crossing the clouds and pointing the way. Last chance gas stations, diners with dead end jobs, the radio static filled with a revival preacher admonishing the listeners to repent. Everything turns to Utopia.

 

Mom in the front seat

Dreams of a new washing machine

Perhaps a new house coat

And a husband who would love her again.

 

Father, eyes straight forward

Thinks of the next two martini lunch and

An evening rendezvous with his young secretary

In a secret hotel close to home.

 

Like a thick novel with empty pages-four lives down the highway in a  medal casket with tail fins. Route 66 attractions beckon for attention and a sparked conversation. This nuclear family just one of the forgotten many in the proto-industrialization of a historical timeline—a contaminated generation.

 

Carl Scharwath, has appeared globally with 150+ journals selecting his poetry, short stories, interviews, essays, plays or art photography (His photography was featured on the cover of 6 journals.) Two poetry books ‘Journey To Become Forgotten’ (Kind of a Hurricane Press) and ‘Abandoned’ (ScarsTv) have been published. His first photography book was recently published by Praxis. Carl is the art editor for Minute Magazine, poetry editor for TL Publishing Group, a competitive runner and 2nd degree black- belt in Taekwondo.