Margaret Ricketts

About Place Journal, Volume II Issue I
Trees

 
Island Creek, Pike County
 
Eric has been devoutly trying to break his
neck all day, as if one more photo from
atop the frozen waterfall might redeem
a single hickory or oak, flung
aside on the stripped mountain.
Dross. Dredge. Dreck.
 
The three of us are driving back to the part of
Kentucky not scarped barren as toast.
Eric and I almost let
ourselves snarl at each other over the CD’s. The jokes,
the terrible jokes, the deathbed jokes.
David is bombarding us with his relentless
supply of fart jokes, the mirth in a burning
room. I want alcohol, plenty of it,
bring it on. We are a knot of
grief and guilt and rage and there will
be no undrugged sleep for us tonight.
 
 
 
Margaret Ricketts is studying creative writing at Pine Manor College. Her work has been in Border College and the Redneck Review. “Island Creek” describes mountaintop removal in Kentucky.