Hilary King
Born and raised in Virginia, Hilary King has lived in Nashville, Atlanta and now the Bay Area of California.
She has been active in the arts for many years. In Atlanta, she created a website and cable show called “Arts in Atlanta” to showcase local artists.
She went on to co-found Atlanta Women in Theatre and the Atlanta Women’s Poetry Collective, and is a member of the Dramatist Guild.
Poem on Belonging
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE: POEM FOR THE BAY AREA A sobering fact when it comes to making it in the Bay Area: People living in vehicles is a reality nearly 10,000 people wake up to each and every day, according to recent census data. (NBC Bay Area, 2020) I imagine you must be in the middle of a road trip, that you parked here, by campus, and hopped out to take a picture of the palm trees. The way your RV wears dirt, the way it sags against the curb, exhausted, I decide it’s a long trip you’ve been on, a grand adventure, not at all a drastic measure. I fill in your details: cross country journey visiting baseball fields or national parks, a pilgrimage, not an ordeal of layoffs and landlords and which streets are friendly and which neighborhoods want you gone. If I pretend hard enough, maybe I will never see myself behind that wheel.
Copyright © 2021 by Hilary King. This poem first appeared in MiGoZine Summer 2021.