Hiraeth

Gabrielle Grinaway

spotted tufts of grass leap—

    burst—

  from old highway dividers between me—

     and you

 our conversations seep—

    leak—

  from cracked open concrete—

     underneath

we are everywhere in this—

multicolor—

  wasteland i find myself so—

     drawn to

you would have loved it here

A section of the highway PA-61 in Pennsylvania has been blocked because of the Centralia coal mine fire. This has been burning beneath the road since 1962. It has led to the decline of Centralia's population from 1000 to less than 10. The abandoned sectionof highway has been covered with grafitti.

Main Location:

PA-61 (Destroyed), Centralia, PA 17921, USA


Other locations:

Smoke rising from the Centralia Grafitti Highway, Pennsylvania