Day 5: Landscape

NovPAD 2024

Shifting Landscape

“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety” ~ from Anthony & Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

At the foot of Mt. Agamenticus
secondary roads curve up then
around then down again, past
stone walls, over dry stream beds.
A pile of soft pumpkins like rotting
in the neighbor’s front yard, hooved 
by those deer we see most mornings 
in the misted meadow, just this side 
of dew-blackened evergreens 
forbidding entry into an 
even darker forest. 

Signs of tribal affiliation mark 
my morning walk – “No on this” 
“Yes on that” “Vote for Ours”.
Stone walls… and soft shoulders 
slope into gutters. Tomorrow 
the unchanging landscape 
will be different. 
Like they say in these parts: 
If you don’t like the weather, 
just wait a minute.