Red Asphalt

by Betsy Mars

We moved to town

the slow summer

before high school

I saw him

the first day of class,

golden and athletic,

elusive,

a bronzed racehorse

of a man --

with hair like Harpo Marx,

loose curls

forming a halo,

a crown

that didn't save

his skull from caving

when he took

that curve

too fast.

* * * * *

"Red Asphalt" was selected for Spectrum 14, an anthology about what it's like to be a teen put together by Don Kingfisher Campbell. 

Betsy Mars is a southern California poet who is in a perpetual battle with change – finally coming to some kind of a truce, and at times even love and acceptance. She is an educator, mother, animal lover, and over-excited traveler. Her poetry has been published in a number of places, both online and in print, most recently in Sheila-Na-Gig, The Ekphrastic Review, and Red Wolf Journal. Writing has given her a means to explore her preoccupation with mortality and her evolving sense of self.