By: Amber Thompson

An empty bottle of

peach Coke

rattles under my seat.

Hard left

and it sounds like some

menacing thing scraping my chassis–

hollow, unsolicited.

 

Not tea or Ne-Hi. Coke.

Peach Coke!

I’m standing in front of the cold drinks

in a gas station outside Sarcoxie, Missouri,

with car trouble

three days before Christmas.

 

Sharp right into our neighborhood

and it sounds like the ice cream truck

playing “Jingle Bells” mid-July–

still hollow and unsolicited

but somehow

not unwelcome.

 

 

Amber Thompson’s work has recently appeared online in Rockvale Review and Critical Read and in print with Ocotillo Review. During college, her writing transitioned from newspaper reporting and editing to poetry and narrative nonfiction. A native Oklahoman, Thompson currently resides in Illinois with her husband Daniel. She blogs about vintage at www.beautifuldayforvintage.com.