By The Way

Our destination takes us from the monotony
of grey urban highways to quiet country roads
beyond which lie a quilted patchwork of corn, oats,
wheat, barley and soy crops whose colour glints
back the summer sun. Above, softly sifting, shifting
cloudworks delicately ornament a pale blue sky.
Wind sways the crops; nothing is still, and
everything is powerfully peaceful in this world.

Purple loosestrife, goldenrod and milkweed
glow their bright colours catching the warmth
of the day and the sun's bright rays. Rushes
and plumed grasses sway to the same music
that transports the glowing flower heads. The
country roads cut through the granite of the
Canadian Shield; grey, striated - beautiful
hardscape to the softscape of cedars and pine,
hemlock and great, trunk-peeling yellow birch.
Junipers grow low, grey-green, distinguished.

Above, a pair of dihedral-winged turkey vultures
coast languorously on the wind. Soon we pass a
wealth of farmhouses, stolidly bricked and speaking
in their rustication another century's language.
Shiny silver and red silos, old and newly-roofed
barns present as a counterpoint to drifting Guernsey
and Jersey milking cows. Recreation there is also
and we see a small herd of sleek-limbed graceful
bodied horses grazing the country landscape.

There, we cross a stone bridge over vigorously
falling waters; the five-arched bridge reminiscent of
Roman earthworks and venerable heritage. There is
space to narrowly pass other vehicles. Downstream of
the rushing waters there stand hip-deep fishermen,
whirling their rods. The journey surpasses in value
the very purpose of achieving the destination.