The Mountain Road

The mountain road was engineered
to loop up and around the slopes
of the great granite rises hugging their 
sides and dropping vast distances below. 
Hair-pin turns and switch-backs dictate 
a sedate and cautious drive when fog 
rolls in to obscure sightlines barely more 
when the sun floats high in a cloudless sky. 
Mountain peaks appear and rise in a rapid 
succession  of spectacular scenes, their 
slopes hirsute with conifers and the 
forests thick with deciduous trees
floating serenely in the valleys below
virtually glowing in shades of crimson
amber and chartreuse, the colour-ephemera 
of this autumnal mountainous season.