Driving through the Hills of Pennsylvania
Somewhere between Toledo and Leesburg
I left them behind
Driving through the hills of Pennsylvania
Tumbling into valleys
Pummeling east
I see them approaching
Catch them after crossing the Potomac
The straps of the luggage carrier flap in the wind
But flap slower than the birds
Slower than my thoughts
I see them piled high in the gaps
One on top of the other
Mine, yours, and millions before
Words flung on branches
Remnants of leftover miles— call out to me
Long fingers reach –
Pursue me like a tail of emergency flares
Frantic dreams dropped on highways
Tailgate me all the way home –
Distances remain.
I lick
frozen orange cream cones
to soothe the burning miles
under my feet
salve rubbing elbows
and stinging eyes, smoke
spewing from a single pipe
I scrape
yellow ribbons of icing
on my fingers
and keep the pieces in a freezer bag
for future celebrations
I lean back, lean forward
Squint into foggy suggestions
Gather words in a safe
To pull out for future reading —
Trees, springing on all sides,
Shelter lost destinies
Some have no shoulder.
***
(Last week, I took an 800+ mile road trip, part of which included crossing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The terrain began to change in Ohio (from Indiana and Illinois), and once in Pennsylvania, I was welcomed with beautiful, green, rolling hills. I started writing this poem while on the road trip.)
***
Linking with dversepoets for the Poetics prompt
Road travelling — can be an ordeal, or it can be a place to let your thought wander.. It’s like doing many trips in parallel.. eating ice-cream in the care.. I would not dare to do that.. but it sounds lovely.
I saw you linked up twice accidentally.. I hope it’s ok that I remove one of the links.
Thanks for fixing the double link!
Oh- and about the “ice cream cones”– it wasn’t literal! 🙂 It was meant to be metaphorical. In this country, construction crews place huge orange cones on the highways and roads where the roads are under construction. That is where I got the idea.
Thank you so much for commenting!
🙂 those cones.. yes they can be a nuisance
lovely visuals here….
Thanks!
we drove to missouri two years ago…so i have seen the change in the lnadscape…it is quite beautiful…i love being out on the road…i find it easier to write…
I enjoy seeing landscape change across the miles…
Oh, I love this! A journey of words! I especially liked “squint into foggy suggestions”! Wonderful!
Thanks so much!
yes, that is beautiful country!
Gorgeous country!
Really lovely–the visuals, the metaphors–I especially enjoyed the first two stanzas.
“Slower than my thoughts
I see them piled high in the gaps
One on top of the other
Mine, yours, and millions before
Words flung on branches”
I rode a train once from North Dakota to Washington, D.C., loved passing through Pennsylvania, so beautiful in the autumn.
Thank you much! It is a gorgeous region, isn’t it!