By A.J. FrantzÂ
My dad describes
his childhood drives
across the Detroit border
as if he were Dorothy
entering Oz;
the film switched,
and in an instant
the world was flooded
with multichromatic
vibrancy.
The dull gray of
blown-out, empty homes
and corner stores
was replaced by lush trees
and houses with siren-red bricks.
Suburbia was his Oz–
some far-off place where
scarecrows talked, tin men
came alive, and children
never went to bed hungry.
A. J. Frantz is from Detroit, MI and is currently studying urban sustainability at Oberlin College. Her work has appeared in Prime Number Magazine, Touchstone, Waymark, and elsewhere.
