Since quarantine hit, the winning poem for the GEHS poetry contest at the end of last year did not get posted. The winner was Indigo Graves with the poem “Three Weeks Later.” This poem is based on a true story that was told to Graves by one of her neighbors, Larry Berger. Berger is also a poet who writes about his experiences and the beauty of West Virginia. He told her this story on a car ride, and she found interest in the intrepid and thrilling cross-country hitch-hike.

To read more about Larry Berger, you can visit the Hashtag Lewisburg City Paper.

THREE WEEKS LATER

Walking west

Into the sun

Nothing in my pocket.

That is how it all started.

I once made it

From Chicago

To California

On seventeen cents

In a stolen car

And the will in my veins.

I was picked up by a stranger

Apparently in a car

That wasn’t his own.

We stopped in San Diego

To sell blood

For gas money.

And when I made it there

He parked his car

On the side of the street

And when I came back

It was still there

Three weeks later.

When I think back

To the shrouded days,

The adrenaline 

Coursing through my body

I wonder

What did life mean

What does it do to us

Is it a reflection of us; 

Of the fearful geometry

That we are made of.

Or are we just

One of seven billion

Pieces of insignificant stardust.

But something feels different,

Reassuring almost,

Like something 

That could still be there

Three weeks later.