The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: ROAD (poem)

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are pipe, playground, prayers, recipes, ribbon, rice, road, saltwater, sandwich, school, sewing.

ROAD

The favorite road of my childhood was Willie Road in rural Folsom, LA, where I lived for five years. Sometimes my friend Kim and I would ride our horses two and a half miles past horse farms and country homes and trailers to the R & R store at the end of the road. We had a crush on the boy who worked behind the counter. His name was Leo.

We chose the home where we currently live, in part, for the road it's on. It's shady, with just the right amount of hills and flat spots, and has lots of woods and few houses. Paul and I walk it at least once a day and marvel at the beautiful world.

A few years ago I wrote “Self-Portrait as a Country Road” after "The Road" by Edgar Degas. Roads are definitely part of my identity... and I drive A LOT (and enjoy driving!). This past year I put 35k miles on my car. :)