The Sign with Nothing On It<\/p>\n
This blank sign in front of the motel was my favorite object in the neighborhood as a child. It is\u00a0shaped like it outlines words, but it has been a solid gray-green for as long as I can remember.\u00a0\u201cLook, it\u2019s the sign with nothing on it!\u201d I yelled to my parents when we passed it in the car. After\u00a0much thought about why a blank sign existed, I decided it must be art.<\/p>\n
My uncle said, \u201cPaintings of the crucifixion can be beautiful. That\u2019s the difference between a\u00a0real crucifixion and a painting. That\u2019s why people make paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The night my mom drove her car into the front yard, my uncle came all the way to our house. I\u00a0was standing alone in the kitchen with the lights off, and he picked me up. My uncle who used to\u00a0put his fake teeth in his belly button and make it talk to me.<\/p>\n
I imagined crucifixions were the popsicle truck colors of the neighbors\u2019 weathered plastic Jesus,\u00a0and smelled like adults\u2019 coats after some event where it was necessary to sit down and be quiet.<\/p>\n
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“The Sign with Nothing On It” is reprinted from Io.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sarah Galvin<\/a> is the author of\u00a0The Stranger\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0\u201cMidnight Haiku\u201d<\/a> series, which are neither haiku nor at midnight. She has a blog called\u00a0The Pedestretarian<\/em>,<\/a> where she\u00a0reviews\u00a0food found on the street.\u00a0The thing she loves most about reviewing discarded food is receiving text messages that say things like \u201cI hear the bus stop on 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0and Union is covered with ham.\u201d\u00a0Sarah is\u00a0poetry\u00a0MFA student at University of Washington, and her\u00a0poems\u00a0can be found in\u00a0io<\/a>, Proximity<\/a>, Pageboy<\/a>, Dark Sky,\u00a0<\/em>and Ooligan press\u2019s\u00a0Alive at the Center<\/a><\/em>\u00a0anthology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Sign with Nothing On It This blank sign in front of the motel was my favorite object in the neighborhood as a child. It is\u00a0shaped like it outlines words, but it has been a solid gray-green for as long … Continue reading