Gove County, Kansas

30 the minnesota review Tom Page Gove County, Kansas Through the rear window of a battered pickup, they look back for the last time at the white farmhouse and yard. Right arm around their mother, Dad tries his best not to look at the image in the rearview mirror; he keeps his eye on the dirt drive curving ahead through the stand of elms to the blacktop road, and this time doesn't stop at the mailbox. He doesn't give a damn whether the postman came or not. He was wise enough to sell what he could before the auction, and figures they can get by for a few months until he finds a job. Yesterday he burned the old portraits and junk of four generations in a huge bonfire behind the house, and told them it's better to start clean some other place, even though he knows it will not be better, and they will be like everyone else they have seen in the decaying towns strung out along the highway. ...