The Road Home

The road home features in two poems this week. Or I should say the last two weeks, as I’ve been absent here.

Our house in Missouri finally sold, leaving us free and clear to move on with our lives here in Arizona. Ironically, the improved situation has left me struggling to reorient myself after the intense efforts and stress of recent months.

These poems do, however, hint at the relief I’ve felt as things begin to resolve—not to mention my love for a place I can now call home with no hesitation.

In case anyone wonders, this is the same road in both poems. It winds upward and northeastward from low desert Tucson to our home.

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The first poem is a tritriplicata, with its 3-6-9-6-3 syllable line structure. At first I attempted to write this as a haiku, but I quickly found I needed just a little more space to expand the image. The tritriplicata gave the space while maintaining structure.

Sunset Drive

Sunset drive
Eastward up the mountains,
Road rising purple in front of me,
Rearview mirror filled with
Pink sunburst.

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This poem has its timestamp set into the lines themselves. It’s not my usual mood or style, but it was exactly what I was feeling that day. I had the entire poem completed in my mind and memorized as I drove so that I could write it down once I got home.

Dec. 2, Tucson

On the second of December,
Driving with the windows down,
Bright blue sky goes on forever
Heading north from Tucson town,

Sipping from an ice-cold mocha,
Mercury at eighty-one,
On the second of December,
Under Arizona sun.

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Finally, our tiny hummingbirds remain hidden most of the time, but I can hear their voices down in the canyon trees.

Buzzing hummingbird
speaks among winter leaves, still
quite invisible.