Two cars up from me on a train headed to California there are two teenage girls travelling alone. I saw them in Portland chain smoking down to the last millisecond of the stop. When the train started again I was in the throws of Rhiannon Argo’s “Girls I’ve Run Away With.”

In Salem I looked up from the last paragraph with tears in my eyes. Salem, which funny enough, features prominently in this incredible story about the resilience of a young heart. As the train started to roll again I packed my snacks back into my bag and shuffled back toward my seat.

I passed those two smokers wrapped up tightly in each other’s arms, sound asleep and smiling.

Thank you Lo, thank you Savvy, thank you baby blue Cadillac!

And thank you Rhia Argo. The Janets and Billys and Carters and Randy’s of the world are still here but so are those big dreamers pressed into each other, headed toward California.

Love is here and will still be here, prevailing as long as stories like this are being told by poets like you.

http://www.moonshinepress.co/books

http://www.rhiannonargo.com