Driving West Through Colorado
Jun 03 2011 Filed in: Jims Poems
Driving West Through Colorado
The distant mountain in front of us
Was barely moving,
Giving us the sense
Of going nowhere.
And maybe we were.
Until we stared
Out a side window,
At speeding fence posts
Barely discernable,
The road beneath our wheels reminding us
How fast time was really moving,
How the future was best observed
With peripheral vision.
And then the mountain was on top of us,
Swallowing us like minnows,
Thoughtless morsels
In the belly of a yawning fish,
We never saw coming.
I think about that trip to the mountain
Now and then.
About metaphors for life and death,
And the passage of time.
But mostly I think,
When I think at all,
About what lies
Beyond the mountains.
The distant mountain in front of us
Was barely moving,
Giving us the sense
Of going nowhere.
And maybe we were.
Until we stared
Out a side window,
At speeding fence posts
Barely discernable,
The road beneath our wheels reminding us
How fast time was really moving,
How the future was best observed
With peripheral vision.
And then the mountain was on top of us,
Swallowing us like minnows,
Thoughtless morsels
In the belly of a yawning fish,
We never saw coming.
I think about that trip to the mountain
Now and then.
About metaphors for life and death,
And the passage of time.
But mostly I think,
When I think at all,
About what lies
Beyond the mountains.