ELECTRIC DREAMS

by James Schwartz 

ElectReon, a wireless and in-road wireless electric vehicle charging technology company, will deploy its first public wireless EV charging road system in Michigan… ElectrRon's charging infrastructure can wireless charge EVs while they are in motion and stationary. The company said it is the first in the world to be successfully demonstrated on public roads. —WXYZ Detroit, February 2, 2022

I dreamt of all the roads I have walked upon,

Beginning with the long gravel swath,

Cutting through the Midwestern countryside,

Running parrellel to the Amish farm,

Housing my earliest memories,

Of March mud puddles,

Mom buckling my boots,

A nearby creek that roared,

Today is a drainage ditch,

Tamed into a narrow ribbon,

Trickling through a culver,

The dream shifts sequence,

I-75 southbound to Sarasota,

Above the quiet fog,

Palms line the boulevards,

I walked twenty years ago,

Another shift through Spanish moss,

To a red clay road,

Outside Tallahassee,

Another shift,

Through South Pacific sunlight,

Another red road,

This one of cinder,

Curving through,

The Kapoho rainforest,

Up and down Noni Farms Road,

I walked so many times,

I no longer needed the moonlight,

To navigate the now desolate,

Steaming onyx field,

Closer to Kilauea,

Lies Chain of Craters road,

For this walk,

I am accompanied by,

A happy dog,

A shift: 

The City of Refuge,

A shift: 

Across the ocean,

The Olympic National Park,

Houses green, wet,

Shimmering, sacred memories,

Roads in Mexico,

Are bloodstained with history,

The streets of Rosarita bustle,

Dreams never conclude,

Logically,

But here I am,

Waiting on the bus,

On M1,

The first mile,

Of paved highway,

In the US,

Not far from,

The old Ford factory,

As I awaken,

To historical headlines,

Heralding the news 

Of an electric charging road,

Coming to the D,

I cling to,

The last dream fragments,

Where I am walking,

Tomorrow.

James Schwartz is a poet, writer, slam performer and author of 5 poetry collections including The Literary Party: Growing Up Gay and Amish in America. Twitter: @queeraspoetry

DAY AFTER

by Rikki Santer

for Sandy Scheuer (August 11, 1949 - May 4, 1970)

Before high school homeroom
as I slide the black arm band
over my bicep I remember
slices of what I knew of you:

in the cafeteria a half-eaten
grilled cheese with your army
of half moons claiming its
triangle of bread—

in civics class the waving
of your palm for the clean
target you made of each question—

in the hallway showcase
the beam of your grin
pronouncing where you were
destined for a first year of college.

This morning you are a distant
schoolmate, one-year ahead
but now a ghost
wish—if you
hadn't walked to class, stepped
into M1 crossfire, stained ground
with your jugular’s flow
became another memorial
for sacrifice biblical & bought.

Author’s Note: After half-a-century, the horror and sorrow of the May 4th massacre that occurred on the Kent State University campus still resonates close to home for me. I light a Yarhzeit candle each year for my classmate. This year, at the fifty-year marker, I wrote this poem for her.

Rikki Santer’s poetry has appeared in numerous publications both nationally and abroad.  Her work has received many honors including five Pushcart and three Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her eighth collection, Drop Jaw, was published by NightBallet Press in the spring.