Fairmount

Michael E. Strosahl

The boys still lean

on cinderblock walls

to have a smoke

and contemplate life

away from these

vacant buildings,

this dying town,

forever grasping

at the ghost

of a rebel.

The girls still walk by,

get a nod from the boys

and giggle

down the cracked sidewalk,

crossing the street

against the signal

without looking.

The boys

stub out their smokes,

flick them into the

empty parking lot

and plan another

Friday night escape to Marion.

Someday

they will leave for good,

only remembering this place

in trivial conversations,

where they will brag

about growing up

James Dean.

---

Michael E. Strosahl runs a newspaper distribution operation and currently resides in Elwood, Indiana. Michael is president of the Indiana State Federation of Poetry Clubs and hosts a monthly poetry reading in Alexandria, Indiana, meeting at the Lighthouse Cafe. His poetry has recently appeared in The

Anthology of New England Writers 2008, is exhibited at the National ArtMuseum of Sport and is forthcoming in Flying Island and Encore, the chapbook of National Federation of State Poetry Societies Contest Winners.

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