Pathways

On their modern  military watch,
pair of white lines  boldly  bolts
mutely through high tractless cobalt.

Far below, in synchronized flight,
a flock retreats, sleekly swerving,
follows unseen currents curving.

Automobiles pierce the countryside,
zipping  slick and  anonymous
along an arrowing asphalt course.
 
Somewhere there a scruffy boot pair
shuffles a  shady creekside  trail,
startling  skittery frogs, deer and quail.

Urged by the press of redolent scents,
salmon home into pounding showers,
battered  while  scaling  rocky towers.

Crosscutting  each  small town or  large city,
tree-lined streets checker upscale sectors,
leading  shaded patrons on paved vectors.

But inner-city kids still walk a bare staccato
of cement blocks queued by vagrant plots
near tenement buildings, vacant parking lots.

first published in Midwest Poetry Review

first published in Midwest Poetry Review