State Road Sixty-Two
Twentynine Palms
two thousand eleven
a salty, old Marine
tried to tell me
the legend
of the Joshua Trees
he spat brown juice
from the shade into
the burning sand
muttered in his
midwest timbre:
the trees only grow
at the gates of heaven and hell,
and heaven is in Israel,
can I borrow like ten bucks?
looking back, though
California was heaven
and sometimes when
I’m drifting along
dusky Florida roads,
I imagine
the twisted silhouettes
of the Joshua Trees
extending their hands
in the place where
God could hear me
Laura Hoffman is a United States Marine Corps veteran currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in English at The University of North Florida. Her most recent work appears or is forthcoming in: Bop Dead City, Clear Poetry, and "Wowsdom: The Girl's Guide to The Positive and The Possible" by Donna Orender,(to be released in Fall 2017). When she is not writing or studying, Hoffman enjoys performing improvised comedy and volunteering with the nonprofit organization Pinups For Patriots.
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