03/24/25: Absent

I find peace in the routine,

Plodding of the daily commute,

Cycling of the same songs,

Parking in the same place,

Sitting in the same seat.

Spring Break changes all of it.

I load the car that’s not my own,

Steer the wheel foreign to my hands,

Chart the course unknown to my mental map.

Pennsylvania is not like home.

Yet I find joy in the rolling landscape,

Cows that balance precariously,

Roads generously coated with salt,

Mountain peaks lightly dusted with snow.

I miss my typical Monday.

We left at 7:30.

            I’m normally still asleep.

We drove for 2 hours.

            I would be in class at this time.

We passed through Oak Hill, West Virginia.

            On Mondays I ponder what Jordan

Tells me about her hometown on Fridays.

We stop for dinner around 6 or so.

            I should be at Jacksonville’s City Council meeting.

We arrive at our frigid destination at 10.

A quick glance at social media from my hotel bed

Proves that Council proceeded as normal

Without the presence of their poet journalist.

While I may have missed congratulatory praise

For the city’s police chief

And the sight of my small town’s hills,

I’ll linger on the crisp northern air

And long for Monday.

-Madeline Ricard