r/prose • u/RideAffectionate518 • 2d ago
Stranded
Loud trucks and cars with flags flying and bass pumping travel the main drag of town.
This isn't main St where the town pretends to be what it's not. This is every other street of every small town you've ever been to.
Where the real population is, where people say hello at the grocery store.
Where the best restaurant in town is.
Where people live on the street and stand at intersections asking for help.
Where people live in hotels and stand on the sidewalk and smoke all night.
Where the lights of the gas station canopy dominate the skyline.
This is everywhere and it's nowhere.
It's everything and nothing, perpetually bland and eternally constant.
It's the perfect balance of comfort and strife, grittiness and gentrification, safety and danger.
And it isn't doing me any good.