Trips to Kensley by Adrian Slonaker

Oliver and his baby brother Eddie

never refused an overnight trip to see

Aunt Peggy and Uncle Lee and

Christopher and Steve

in the unincorporated community of Kensley

caressing de facto farmland

so dissimilar to their soulless suburb

lying limply on the commuter line from the city.

Unlike their own bland bungalow

where tired, trite rites and tensions

fueled fracases and failures,

Aunt Peggy’s place was perpetually splashed with

volleys of laughter and lights

and video games and whispering after dark

and bowls brimming with Better Than Robert Redford Cake,

Now Aunt Peggy and Uncle Lee have expired, and

Christopher, Steve and even Eddie

have gradually retreated into

the territory of unfamiliarity.

Ditches deepened by

decades of disappointment and boredom

have been dug across Oliver’s brow,

but sometimes he stabs the key

into his used Nissan Micra-

which isn’t even close to being paid off-

and cruises over to Kensley

onto a street that has been renamed,

to a once-halcyon house claimed by strangers

before returning to a room that's

haunted by nothing.

Adrian Slonaker works as a copywriter and copy editor in Urbandale, Iowa. Adrian's work has been nominated for Best of the Net and has appeared in The Bohemyth, Queen Mob's Tea House, Pangolin Review, Montana Mouthful, Avatar Review, and others.