Eleven days ago we drove from our outskirts of Rescue to Rocklin to Jackson & back home again; Hatch and I got our 2nd dose of vaccine, and I got a haibun:
Out of Town
Country roads and 4-lane thoroughfares named for old-time ranches. Subdivided now, asphalt fields. Keep moving. Condos without cease, gray roofs climbing a hill topped by McMansion maybe bigger than the town of Latrobe. A part of our county I’ve never driven or, if years ago, how could I know? so changed! Farther out from suburbs, remains of an old rock wall. Three horses in a field under tremendous billowy dark-bottom clouds. We’re arriving at spring. Willows in pale-bright catkin. No place to stop, no shoulder on this winding 2-lane with traffic bound for business. I’m not driving fast enough, looking for the first or last daffodil. Ghosts of cattle roam –
hills go on greening in hope
or desperation.
~ Taylor Graham
first appeared on Medusa’s Kitchen
