Kristen Lindquist

Joyride

We’ve outlawed billboards, but here in rural Maine we continue to express ourselves through roadside signage: “Loud bikes save lives!” on a post above the fenced-in trailer; “Get US out of the UN now!” painted on the side of a barn; names and jersey numbers on tacked-up poster board to support a high school basketball team along its route to the state tournament. Or those small pieces of plywood spray-painted in red, nailed to utility poles in the middle of nowhere, that simply say “HELL” with a down arrow or, more rarely, “HEAVEN” with an up arrow.

blooming
along dead man's curve
plastic flowers

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About the Author

Kristen Lindquist is a frequent book reviewer for Frogpond and other journals, as well as coordinator for the Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Award for Haibun. Her books include island (2023, Red Moon Press) and It Always Comes Back, winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press eChapbook Award. You can read her daily haiku blog at www.kristenlindquist.com/blog. She lives in Midcoast Maine.

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