Edge of the World, by Kendall Johnson

Edge of the World, by Kendall Johnson (USA) contemporary

Edge of the World

Seeking relief from spectacle, you drive out old Route 66, lock your car and walk toward Amboy Crater. Stepping off the ranger’s boardwalk, you trudge toward the cone and your body tells you to slow down—sand being slower than sidewalk, and the heat closing around. You welcome regulation from within, born of need, not population density. As you walk, you think other abstract things, like your past, despair and hope. And the slower you go, the more you hear, both small birds and large, the scurry of the unseen, the story in winds that caressed the land to the north and now bring their smells to you. Midday summons, that will change with coming night. By the time you get to the crater, you’ve forgotten why it was so important to climb to the top and see what happens next.

Kendall Johnson

Kendall Johnson writes and paints in Upland, California. The former psychotherapist has authored books on trauma and crisis management, poetry, and memoir. His work has seen the light of day in Literary Hub, Tears in the Fence, Cultural Weekly and Shark Reef. His book Chaos & Ash released in August by Pelekinesis. www.layeredmeaning.com