The land moves
Waves of soil and asphalt
Break at my feet
Transport me
To a distant beach
And the love I shared there
I imagine the wind
Carries wafts of brine and low-tide
Amid the many scents of you
Across this rolling sea
And a beckoning highway
I reach out for a hand
That cannot be here
Equal parts land and sky
A gravel grid takes me there
And then afar
The dust kicked up
Wind whisks away
An expanse left sparse
For what good seed may raise
The prairie, where sight lines end
Only at the infinite
Through the gloom
You reach out
To offer light
And energy
When the paths to exalted places
Seem paved with broken asphalt
Through blighted landscapes
I am left to wonder
A test of my resolve
To achieve exaltation
Or testimony
To the destination’s character
In the calm of a lakeshore afternoon
Even the gulls fall silent
Light breezes reveal in relief
Where ripples swath the glassy smooth
Warm exhalations condense in the chill
With measured breaths
Close eyes
Breathe in the peace
Distant buzz grows
Hull thuds against the lake
Casts sprays of white noise
Laughter rises in several tones
Then slowly fades away toward silence
Until the wake finds the rocky shore
Splash
Splash
Another splash
Now stillness
But for the breeze
And my breath
Sun hangs low on the horizon
Light subdued behind cloud bands
Tide well out
Yet still receding with haste
Earth’s exhaustion
Feels equal to my own
So I amble back to the trailer
With daylight’s final ember
Sizzling out
On the muddy shore
Long days on the road
Have eaten away
At my reserves
So the tide may remain out
For a few days yet
While my inner sun
Recharges
Under the wan light
Of stars in a new moon sky
The grasses and shrubs bow and flutter
On a windswept fen
Long Range Mountains leap from the plain
Testament to the crushing power of colliding continents
And I am reminded
Of a small boy
Heart rent through and through
By harsh words and hard gestures
It’s alright, boy
You bent like the grass
And rose up like the mountains
There is no small beauty in that
Nothing reminds me
Of just how small a speck I am
In this universe
Than being in an expansive landscape
At golden hour
I sit with that
Groove on my insignificance
Feel community
With all the other insignificant things
I share existence with
The rock I’m sitting on
The trees and shrubs around me
The wildflower eking out a life
In a crack of the craggy cliff face
Each ephemeral wave breaking on the shore
We’re all here
For the briefest glimmer of time
Even the half billion year-old rock
I’m sitting on
The tiniest things in the tiniest time
Because what is any one thing
No matter how large
Or how old
When measured against
The infinite eternal
But here I am
For the briefest slice of a moment
In this miniscule scene
Of a star setting over a planet’s horizon
Feeling connected to all of it
And for that moment
I am not just a part of it all
But filled with it all
Expanding until I am as vast and timeless
As the universe
.
.
.
.
.
Then the sun sets
I go back to the car
And tow my little trailer
To some nice little spot
To camp for the night
Apparently
Even enormity
Is ephemeral
But the memory of it
Lasts a lifetime
He saw change coming
Had to come
Life altering change
Had to be
He’d come to a cul de sac
Every step now
Just circled the perimeter
But what next?
What path led forward?
He had no idea
All he had
Was a little sparkle
Of hope
Enough for the confidence
To step out of the circle
He woke
Later than intended
Sunlight streamed
Through the trailer window
Rising
He pulled his boots
Over his socks
And clambered out
From the cliff edge
He saw most boats
Were still in the harbour
“That’s good,” he thought
He rushed back into the trailer
Pulled his pants on over the boots
Grabbed the bag with his gear
Made sure the trailer was secure
In the truck
He hoped for the worst
For some other bloke
So there’d be an open spot on a boat
It wasn’t a hope
He liked to hope
But he needed the work
And someone else had to lose out
It was either that
Or over to the cafe
And then the pub
To nurse whatever drink was before him
There was barely enough money for that
But even less to make the trailer
A place he wanted to spend
Any more than a restless night in
Pix to Words 