Indiana Redux

The distance between Darmstadt

and Haubstadt in 1958 was five miles,

more or less, and still is, evoking

a sameness that pleasures the mind,

both towns north of Evansville

on Highway 41, not to mention

the black-headed goat still crossing

the road among the sheep, my girl

snuggled tight and popping Dentyne,

this in my dad’s new Buick with one

of those grinning grilles, WJPS

rockin’ us due south to the Sunset

Drive-in where the on-screen clock

is timing down, though we both know

there’s time to spare, cartoons

and previews before the lion roars,

announcing the main feature,

and above it all the man in the moon

as stoic as ever in spite of the stars.

 

—Roger Pfingston   (Monroe County)

This poem originally appeared in Innisfree Poetry Journal 16 (2013).

Roger Pfingston’s poems have appeared in magazines, books, and anthologies over a period of fifty years. In 1997 he retired from teaching English and photography in Bloomington, where he lives with his wife Nancy. His latest chapbook is A Day Marked for Telling, published by Finishing Line Press. New poems appear in recent issues of Passager, Innisfree Poetry Journal, and Naugatuck River Review.

Indiana Humanities is posting a poem a day from Indiana poets in celebration of National Poetry Month.