Travelers

More than two roads have diverged here

You having been to me what I have been to you

Travelers of life, equally bound to this duty

I have been the red light, making you stop

I have been the amber making you think

And I certainly have been your green, encouraging you to grow

I have been the family of ducks gingerly crossing in front of your car, bare in blindsight making you pause and realize delicate life’s defenselessness

Have I not been the twisted wreck craning your neck in backglance; the one that made you instantly swear off behaviours? yes yes yes An instant call to change? Yes!

And I have picked up my pieces alone

And rode on, changed.

I have

I have been the gentle iced over curve that made you aware of gravity

I have been the traffic jam stubbornly keeping you still challenging your ability to stay in the skin

To be

To not move

And you once passed me on the left, flicking me off, thinking nothing of it.

I have driven down your dirt roads; gotten out of the car in torrential rain and played in your mud

I have run into the woods, leaving myself on the side of you

escaping your enclosure

Have I not been all of these things?

I have seen you sometimes, in my rear view mirror, smiling at me my smile.

I have driven nights where eyes went through the open roof navigating more by stars than by yellow striped black pavement

Have I not carried my own stones? Paved my own path? Have I not found you when you went off of the grid and refused to be discovered? Are you not my New America?

I have taken to traveling, to moving forward. I believe in this terra firma bottom frame of this firmament eternal and in you always being there, perhaps showing me the way.

And the earth is round

so we shall meet again.

I have seen him pass me on the other side, my other side, smiling my smile. I saw you knowing my thoughts. These same roads which tear us apart can bring it back.

And yet, I may never see any of you again. For these roads are unknown; unbekannt. But we have all been lucky here. To travel and traverse each other the way stars wink cross the empyrean and never touch

We may never touch but I am touched

You have been my road sign sometimes telling me to STOP, YIELD, EXIT, DETOUR, SLOW DOWN. I have been your mirrored image doing my duty. You were born knowing what you want here

And this has made all the difference.

Effulgent Sun white as snow blinding me, I still speed into fate

Sure of one motion following the next

Driving past the horizon

Into the oblivion of beauty.