Ryler Dustin's "Interstate Five" originally appears in Trailer Park Psalms, which was awarded the 2022 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, he has represented Seattle on the final stage of the Individual World Poetry Slam. You can find more of his poems at rylerdustin.com.
Interstate Five
Interstate Five What remains of these lost deltasafter the mills shut down: an artof disappearing, black-windowed bars,the towers of a closed factorystill blinking their red lights to hideno work’s inside. For yearsI drove past these roadside dinerscarved out of rain, trailer parks linedwith European trees, the truck stopwhere cigarette smoke driftsinto the air like a …