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Open Poetry #38
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The Trouble With A Road
| Open Poetry #38 |
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The Trouble With A Road |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass 
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The Trouble With A Road The trouble with a road is that it sinks deep and never stops. Every dirty foot takes some from every dirty foot of it, every tire and the sometime road grader belching sound and dust while it scrapes gravelly mud and broken whiskey bottles out of where a ditch ought to be. They all take more than they bring and the road goes deep. It gets so down it has a bank along one side and an almost bank across there, sumac on the one, ragweed, goldenrod stiff on the other. To a kid just to walk that road becomes an act of faith; sometimes you can’t see into the weeds, or above the bank or even the half bank to know what’s up there in those fields, or over the edge of the hill. At least the run of things conspires to keep it flat after it clears the top, but you have to get there on foot. There’s nothing dangerous, the real hit is that you don’t know, and you have to walk it on trust. |
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| © Copyright 2006 Ed Ratledge - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Honeybunch Member Rara Avis
since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115South Africa |
Absolutely right, Ratleader! Roads may be different for each of us but the certainty is that we're all walking them one step at a time. And we trust, yes, in whatever offers relief along the way. Enjoyed the read! |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass |
Yes....and growing up is harder than being grown-up. We're taller then and can see farther along the track, at least in the part that runs along the brow of the hill, before it descends into the woods on the other side....... ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº> ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº> |
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nakdthoughts Member Laureate
since 2000-10-29
Posts 19200Between the Lines |
Maybe some of us never really grow up therefore life just keeps the "hard" coming ( just me thinking life is harder now than when I was a kid)  M |
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Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049California |
Ed I've written alot about roads....they seem to be a part of life, especially the ones that are hard to walk. A child can make a road from imagination....it's too bad that most of us lose that ability. I really liked this...got me thinking it did. |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass |
Yep, M&M -- its sad, but there's no guarantee that road will ever hit a level stretch....or that we'll keep the ability to see it at all. I've written of this particular road several times, and yes, even as a kid I saw that half-gravel-half-clay track as a metaphor for life. Still do: /main/forumdisplay.cgi?action=displayarchive&number=94&topic=001645 /main/forumdisplay.cgi?action=displayarchive&number=79&topic=000028 /main/forumdisplay.cgi?action=displayarchive&number=77&topic=000205 ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº> ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº> ______________Ratleader______________ |
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The Lady Member Rara Avis
since 2005-12-26
Posts 7634The Southwest |
"the real hit is that you don’t know, and you have to walk it on trust." Trust comes so easy for children. Excellent work, as always. |
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Will Rhyme Member
since 2006-05-22
Posts 149 |
Great Job with this one! Will |
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Magnus
since 2001-10-10
Posts 14135South Carolina, USA |
Ed, I think each of us has our own road that we walked endless times...waiting to see what was beyond the rise ahead of us.... Sometimes we needed a gentle shove of encouragement... Sometimes not. |
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passing shadows Member Empyrean
since 1999-08-26
Posts 45577displaced |
I wonder if we could say the same thing about the sky *sigh* this write got me thinking and maybe even writing a poem in my head |
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suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
There’s nothing dangerous, the real hit is that you don’t know, and you have to walk it on trust. How very true... and how very difficult when our imaginations are running wild. *S* Your incredible imagery reminded me vividly of some roads I've walked through both the known and the unknown... and the nerves that made hairs stand on end when dusk turned one to the other. *S* Some only exist now in memory... but I can feel each foot of them. Beautiful write, my friend... and an extra thank you for those links... I enjoyed visiting those wonderful poems again. *S* |
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