19
If you follow US 19,
in parts of Florida,
especially my part of Florida,
it lives of confused and missed directed life.
It rides along with US 98
coming up towards Perry, Florida
from the south and east,
even though 98 is supposed
to be east and west
and 19 supposed to be
north and south,
they are the same road
from some point
until they reach Perry,
and in Perry,
there is US 27 waiting quietly
in front of the old red brick church
on the corner.
US 27 is also north and south,
but for a fair piece
from Gainesville to Perry,
it goes more east and west
of the north and south
but at a certain intersection
in Perry, Florida,
there’s a crazy handoff
and 98 continues west
where 27 looks like it was going.
27 takes a 90° turn and 19 continues
the direction it and 98 were going
before it stops at the red light
so now 19 and 27 go north
but still west towards Tallahassee
then 98 goes down to Apalachicola, Florida,
which is kind of a mystical, a mythical place,
until you go there and see
all the unemployed oysterman
and all their redneck hate flags
you despise them and feel sorry for them
all at once
and you know they love the bay
as much as anybody who
ever ate an oyster
and there’s nothing
you can do about it
because it’s Atlanta‘s fault
and there’s not really anything
Atlanta can do about it.
They have to have a drink,
but the odd thing is
if you come across the bridge
on 98 which is also US 319
at that point
and right at the bottom
of the bridge that you go
into Apalachicola
is a sign that says End of US 319
but 98 continues to Panama City
and Pensacola
and New Orleans
and probably to California
but I’ve never been there,
But this is the story
about Highway 19,
somewhere out in the wilderness
of Jefferson County,
somewhere between
the reasonable town of Perry
and the beautiful tree city Tallahassee,
for no apparent reason,
my 27 continues west
until it turns on its own
hard 90° turn to go north
towards Havana in front
of the state capital building,
but here are trees a couple of burned out
gas stations that haven’t
pumped gas
in my lifetime,
here, 19 turns and rides
a little two-lane road to some point up north,
some point I could figure out
if I looked at it on a map.
I know it goes to Monticello,
and that’s Monticello
without an ‘H’ sound,
he goes north out of Monticello
on to Georgia and God knows where
but it really ends in Monticello for me
and nobody that I can imagine
gets up in the morning
in Monticello and says,
“I think I’ll drive 19
and go down and see
some bombed out gas stations
along US 27”,
but that’s what 19 does.
