Driving Home
My daughter Isa, around age 2, developed a great fear of hills – & for a month or so refused to go in the car if we were going on routes with any elevation – It seemed like a kind of existential worry, with the question of what’s on the other side?
Halfway between Mt. Gilead and Shelby
Route 314 dips low
Up and over the ridge across the valley
Hundreds of feet below.
(Hundreds of feet below)
Weary from months of teaching,
I slip out of gear and coast
As if the car were weightless
And we could merely float.
(And we could merely float)
Chorus: Daddy, when we got over that hill,
Are we going to disappear?
She asked me when she was 2 years
old & I said I didn’t know.
In the backseat, now 10, my daughter sprawls,
For once glad of the hour
& her mother turns chin and knees to the door,
Silent, sad & sour
How many lives around the world
How many ins and outs
Ups and downs and circles of wishes
Spinning round us now
Chorus
Over the earth in its late seasons,
What consequence, my dear?
We rise over the gap, unknown,
& somehow we’re still here. (repeat)