On the sunny shores of
Spirit Lake, a worker in shades
lugs a black semi-automatic
gun from his room, adjacent
ours, to his cobalt Ford pick-up,
Pennsylvania plates. Shift’s
almost begun. Men with
beefy shoulders crowd the
Continental breakfast room
in tiny, white plastic chairs.
Last night they drank beers
late. Now trucks rumble.
It’s only August. Summer’s
long half-over. People ache
for autumn, and we need to
get serious. On my run, I
spy a teacher walking to
school, past a corridor of
pines, wondering when
the earth will stop shaking.
Christopher Vondracek is the author of Dancing with Welk, a memoir, and the forthcoming collection of essays, Redlin or Rodin, from the University of Nebraska Press. He is a Washington D.C. correspondent for the Minnesota Star Tribune.
