Pavement

Another assignment from the Creative Writing Class November 6, 2011

The pavement slowly rolls along,

littered with pot holes

and patches hastily done,

the loose pebbles ticking around under my feet,

It’s a prime example of a country road

that no one who matters

truly cares about.

 

This is my road though-

my patchy pavement.

Every beat of my heart

matches the voraciousness

of my pounding feet.

My road,

that I am surely and slowly

traveling along

to nowhere in particular.

 

Dead-looking fields surround me

having survived yet another drought

and woeful harvest.

Weeks earlier I had sat

in the big, green harvesting machine

and watched the feeble bean stalks sliced,

smelled the dusty remains that floated in the air,

paired with the farmer’s face shrouded in disappointment.

They grew in vain, you see,

the yield wasn’t enough

to make them worthwhile.

 

The road, my fields-

the product of generations

of hard working farmers.

Likely to go to waste,

at the lowest bid

when the government finishes what it started

thirty years ago,

and takes the rest.

 

I continue to run,

and focus on my breathing,

increase my stride.

The roads converge,

and I’m left stalling

catching my breath-

Which way to go?

Everything is the same these days.

These are all my family’s roads,

and I’ve ran every single one of them.

They have nothing to offer me anymore,

no new smells, sounds, or sights,

nothing but worn pavement for me to deface

with my red and white overpriced running shoes.

 

I blindly choose a road,

for it doesn’t matter.

And I hope for the wind at my back,

just like the old Cectic songs sing-

but today as always,

it’s making it harder for me

to move forward.

It does not, however,

completely hinder me.

So I take a deep breath,

and like the

pavement,

the fields,

the farmers,

and the wind,

I prevail.

 

 

Reviews

[AWSklavos]

This poem makes me think about myself, running and walking along, and how at those times music or poesy seems to flow in effortlessly. I wonder if that is how you came up with this poem? I enjoyed reading it, and probably will again another day. Thank you for sharing.