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      July 24, 2015Route 9Martin Willitts Jr.

      Welcome to Laurel, Delaware,
      population three thousand seven hundred
      where the Route 9 sign hides
      embarrassed to be associated with the Laurel Blue Hens
      of the Eastern Shore Baseball League.
      We are the proud home of many of our governors
      and no one could care less.
      We are the location of the sweet potato blight,
      one of our crowning accomplishments.
      Notice our balloon construction houses.
      We like to put up a fuss about trash collection day;
      it is almost a weekly celebration.
      The Old Christ Church is located near the millpond,
      has a flattened barrel vault ceiling,
      but some say it is haunted by ghosts of slave auctions.
      Route 9 once ran through a cow pasture,
      but was straightened out by geography.
      Saw a moose on the baseball pitcher’s mound.
      Some say the result of the potato blight
      was so many governors being born here.
      Now I gave you the one minute tour,
      do you still want directions out of here?
      Most people do. Route 9 tends to disappear.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the the editor

      “From Boston, where the photograph was actually taken, we journey down to the other end of Route 9. Willitts did his homework to bring the town of Laurel, Delaware, to life with the sense of false nostalgia that inhabits much of Americana. Both funny and sad, it made me see the photograph in an unexpected way.”