earth note 82

bicycling ohio

let the elements beat you up
to the end
the road is a message for the
non-believer
where the crest ridge becomes
an endless stream of mounds
an aboriginal marker most holy rolling
mountains the work of glaciers
the broken patch of dried-out green
becomes the wrath of human hand
beating life without a vision
tarry road a reckoning headwind
you are no match for it

when the sun picks
a soft spot of earth
and shadows its underbelly
consider this grace

--- e b bortz

(published in Whiskey Island #45, 2002)