Festival in an Abandoned Town

We take the turn down the long and straight road
toward the abandoned town hosting an art show;
a car passes going the other way, then two cars,
then a pack of seven cars, and we begin to wonder
if this art opening is a bigger deal than we thought.

The paved road stretches on but we can see cars
on either side, parked in the red dirt and bushes,
still far outside of town, and then we find the line
of people hoping to find a dirt patch large enough
to hold their car as they look through 300 paintings.

The music reaches us as soon as we exit the car,
and we head for the food carts, too few in number
for a town with no real restaurant or other eatery.

Hundreds of people press in close, calm and civil,
but we know we made a gross miscalculation
when we thought this was just an art opening.