For Decades, I Sped Upon Turn Pikes
James McAdams

esse est percipi—Bishop Berkeley
 
where pavement rushed between fallow crests
and tunnels bored  by ancestors who
crushed rocks on silent work crews
to forge corridors of connection. 
 
Pictured with heavy tools and lunch pails,
their Turn Pike Plaza memorial
hovers like a revenant now,
silent no longer,
urging on (see below) the travelers,
like myself,
who wait in lines for restrooms,
Starbucks,
lottery tickets, or condoms,
under digital boards captioned “Have You Seen Me?” 
 
{Elena Gombritz: age 10: brown eyes: black hair--
Last seen 01/12/2011.
 
Martin Pereno: age 11: hazel eyes: brown hair--
Wearing OSU Buckeyes shirt: last seen 08/21/2012.
 
Haydee Memlee: age 10: blue eyes, blonde hair--
Last seen 08/31/2014.}
 
Urging us, those memorial images,
to turn away from our devices
and cherish our children
and salute our ancestors.
 
Older now and alone,
I lean on my walker
under the digital board 
peering at children who scamper
among crushed ketchup packets
and crumpled snotkins
and the American ring of  registers…
Wanting to crawl,
with the few  memories that still console,
into the digital board that reads
“Have You Seen Me?’ 

 
 
 

About the Author:  James McAdams’ fiction, creative non-fiction, and academic essays have been published in numerous venues, including Kritikos, Connotations, Readings: A Journal for Scholars and Readers, Wreck Park Journal, Superstition Review, Amazon’s Day One, decomP, Literary Orphans, and BOAAT Press, among others.  His research interests include post-postmodernism, creative writing, the digital humanities, and the medical humanities. Before attending college, he worked as a social worker in the mental health industry in Philadelphia.  Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Lehigh University, where he also teaches and co-edits the university's literary journal, Amaranth. His creative and academic work can be viewed here​.

---