The road starts out straight

Situations in which I'm pretty sure I'd be very happy right now:

1. Wandering in vast field...breathing in pure air



2. On a smooth, rock beach with a good friend pondering life's deepest questions and then laughing about how the answers don't even matter



3. Kissing some dream boy on a tandem bike on a warm summer afternoon...biking to nowhere


4. Toes skimming the lake....thinking about how cool and calm the water is





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Travel Directions

by Joan I. Siegel

There ought to be a word
for the way you know how to get some place
but don't remember the names of streets
the number of turns and blinking yellow lights
so that if someone asked
you really couldn't say
except you know the road starts out straight
and when it's sunny the branches blink across
the windshield making you want to rub your eyes
then the road turns sharply uphill past a red barn
where a black dog jumps out to race you for a quarter mile
and finally recedes in the mirror like a disappointment
and you remember the road dips downhill
into the shadows of the morning
where you hear Bach's unaccompanied 'cello
and understand what a good fit the 'cello makes
in the hollow of the body
where grief begins and for an indeterminate time
the road winds vaguely past
houses people road signs
while time hums in your ear and you remember
the dream you left behind that morning
which had nothing
to do with where
you are going

"Travel Directions" by Joan I. Siegel, from Hyacinth for the Soul.