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      March 28, 2017Tanka (Lonely Highway)Tracy Davidson

      Image: “Hwy 41” by Debbie McAfee. “Tanka (Lonely Highway)” was written by Tracy Davidson for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, February 2017, and selected by McAfee as the Artist’s Choice winner. (PDF / JPG)
      lonely highway
      the wheat fields of my childhood
      come back to me
      the unrelenting crop
      my father beat me with

      Comment from the artist, Debbie McAfee

      “I was driving alone up to Yosemite to go to a friend’s daughter’s wedding. I left late, because I had something to do in the morning. It was October, and the sky was gray, and it was about to rain. It was a long, lonely drive, and I was thinking about the past and my life. I stopped at a gas station and saw this scene across the field. I took out my phone and took a photo, which I posted on Instagram—and then several years later turned it into this artwork. I picked the poem I did because it hit me immediately upon reading. It seemed to capture the mood I felt as I was driving along the road and took the photo. Although the thoughts were not the same as in the poem, I felt like it captured the mood of the day perfectly.”