A Mend in the Road

by Morgan Grayce Willow
 
Night of new location,
everyday forms behind in heaps.
An openness waiting for shape.
Into this: clack, clack, clack.
Ticking names on fingers: cricket,
tree frog, catbird. It is none
of these. Early dawn, still: clack,
clack, clack. Random cadence.
Exacting. Try again: windmill,
horse paddock, watering tank. It is
none of these. Behind it
voices of tires, three-part harmony:
speed, weight, and friction.
Finally, the long path of highway
translates itself, each wheel
caressing a seam where once
the worn heart of road
had broken.

© 2005 by Morgan Grayce Willow. All rights reserved.

Morgan Grayce Willow's chapbook Arpeggio of Appetite will appear from Finishing Line Press in October, 2005. Recently, she helped coordinate the Minneapolis-St. Paul Poetry in Motion program, which places poetry posters in Metro Transit buses and light rail cars.