“Pandemic Pop Songs on the Radio” by Margaret King

From Antigo to Manitowoc

In August

After Dells of the Eau Claire River

Not to be confused with Wisconsin Dells

I drove the scenic highway

Where strains of music

Found me on tenuous waves

Across the Lake from Michigan

("If the world was ending you'd come over, right?")

Turn a bend 

Notes dissolve to static

Straight road

The song flows

Across time and space

("Before you go

Is there something I could've said

To make your heart beat better?")

This what it's like to know you

Beautiful chords winged across miles

Heard sporadically

On tenuous airwaves

Transmitted 

Through electrified air

Shaky reception

Fading in and out

Depending where we are on the map

("Would we better off by now

If I'd have let my walls come down?")

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Margaret King enjoys penning poetry and flash fic. Her recent work has appeared in MoonPark Review, Levatio Magazine, Nightingale & Sparrow, and Great Lakes Review. In 2021, she was nominated for a Pushcart for her eco-flash fiction story "The Sky Is Blue." She teaches tai chi in Wisconsin. She is also the author of the poetry collection, Isthmus.

@Indreni