The empty lot of the abandoned car dealership
is overrun with dandelions, thistles, and sticker weeds.
On the right is a Baptist church standing
sternly against the invasive plants.
The ministry’s gardener sprays Roundup
on the weaker creepers while his assistant
uses a torch on the deeply rooted ones.
On the left is a BBQ specializing in Nashville Hot Chicken.
Congregants fill the abandoned spaces on Sundays,
parking in every white-lined spot.
On weekdays, the meat, pork, and poultry adherents
occupy the fringes of the cracked tarmac.
Saturdays are the days for the wildflowers to bloom,
the sticker weeds to cling to the cuffs of children’s pants,
and the hindquarters of every sniffing dog.
Church festival days were the time for the lot to be filled
with popcorn, churro, and taco carts-
ring toss, balloon pop, and fish bowl toss booths-
a bounce house, and the heroes of the Bible
obstacle course for the children.
Halloween week was the one time the BBQ joint
had the lot to itself. It erected a tent of horror
filled with demons, bedsheet ghosts, and demented chainsaw-wielding dwarves. The finale featured
the patrons being strapped to an altar and exorcised
by a defrocked priest and ******* clad nuns.
The other scary ride was the tunnel of love and marriage. Couples were faux-married by a maniacal judge and,
by the end, were divorced by the jurist’s serial killer twin. What happened in between the nondisclosure agreements everyone signed kept it all private and secret.
Since the horror house made a lot of money and the church received a large sponsor donation,
the deacons ignored the false sins and degradations.
Anyway, by Monday, the altar was gone,
the neon horror tent collapsed and
the sticker weeds reclaimed their corners,
waiting for the next act.
Most days, I drive past it all—the sermons,
the spice rub, the ghost dealership, the exorcisms,
and I wonder if this patch of cracked asphalt
knows what it is. Or if it even matters.
But nothing stops the dandelions from
dancing in the breeze and car exhaust air,
singing their minor chord hallelujahs to life.
On Sundays the faithful return to their pulpits.
By Fridays, the altar is a karaoke stage,
with the pastor belting out “Highway to Hell”
between deep-fried sermons.
And then lunch at the BBQ on the other side.
