South Carolina Backroads

Oaks older than the Union,

Confederate ghosts haunting branches

rise above the tree line, eclipsing

the sky. Creeks whisper

over shoals, shale outcrops

unsubmerged by the drought,

adolescent forests dapple light

on the sunbleached

two-lane blacktop, potholed,

shoulders crumbling

from floods past, hurricane

rain washing away the

ferrous clay, roots exposed,

kudzu arbors, banks over-

hanging creeks— moccasin

mansions with root rooms

reaching down through

empty space

to the quietly

seeping, blood-

warm water.