The answer lies in the border lands

I was away again, taking the last van load of ‘stuff’ to the house before the big removal next month. It was too hot yesterday to do much, so I wrote, essentially about how hot it was…

This poem, written for Jilly’s Jim Harrison prompt also fits the dverse ‘Border’ prompt.

“The only answer I’ve found is the moving water whose music is without a single lyric” ~

You dip your hand in the silver stream,

Where the water dimples play,

But the river runs and the river sings,

And you come sad away.

 

You hoped life would be simple,

No nuance, wrong or right,

But most of life’s in the border lands,

That lie twixt day and night.

 

The heart’s way follows the river,

The moon in the sky above,

the sweetest path you can see in my eyes,

If you’d only look, my love.

 

I hope you turn, but I hope in vain,

For the answer you wanted to know,

Was should you stay and bide with me,

And the river has told you, go.

Mountain

The Daily Post prompt is: mountain.

Photo ©Paco Gomez

They said it would be simple. They said just follow the road. There would be sunshine and rain and enough to eat for everyone. Just keep moving, stick to the plan, stay among the trees, climb.

They said there was nothing to fear, no obstacle, no trap. First the oak trees then the pines, the larch and the spruce. Then just bare rock and raptors soaring. The mountain.

We followed the road, then the track through the trees, climbed through the oaks and the spruce, the scented gorse. We moved, bent against the incline, used hands as well as feet, over the bare rock, over the mountain. And just before the pass, before the land beyond came into view, the green valley they had told us of, the air exploded in gunfire, screaming and gouts of blood. And I saw that the raptors that soared overhead were vultures.