Two Hundred Seventy-Three

Not long ago, I wrote what was to be a short vignette introducing the town of Struggles, Arkansas. There is no such place, except in my head. But I keep returning to Struggles and to my dissatisfaction with my description of the town. There’s more to the place than the failure reflected in the weeds growing in the cracks in its streets. Behind the boarded windows of failed businesses, stories of heartache and disappointment reside in close company with misplaced dreams and dashed hopes. Ten thousand writers have written about a hundred thousand desolate places like Struggles; but no one has written the story of Struggles the way it deserves to be told. One day, I will polish my vignette and do justice to the town that never was, but should be.