One

In every town there are many roads that lead

to places like

schools and churches and homes and stores.

In every town those many roads

can twist and curve and end just as suddenly as they began

with names and numbers to mark their place on maps in books and printed within hastily folded booklets lost under car-seats and in stuffed into backpacks and glove compartments and desk drawers.

And if you are curious

and would really like to know

you could

ask someone like me how many roads lead

to haunted houses

and neglected cemeteries

and corners where someone looked up into a strange face and wondered if they were going home for the last time

and someone like me

will tell you

with the sunset falling in their eyes

that

there is only one road

that goes to these places

Only One.