all arguments end
with a smooth lake and mountains
(just enjoy the view)
Road Trip 2020 (Montana, Day Three)
car
Road Trip 2020 (Montana, Day Two)
a roaring river
inaptly named Stillwater
brightens my morning
a glamping cabin
ends a drive past mountains, lakes
heaven, Montana
Road Trip 2020 (Montana, Day 1)
drive through Wyoming
until you reach this heaven
that is Montana
The Cooler Fits
kids will never know
how much planning is involved
in any road trip
one day they will see
the weeks of planning, packing
to fill-up this car
Cilantro (Culantro)
he corrected me
even though it’s in Spanish
white buds. so pretty.
‘no’ is a new word
yet so familiar to me.
so adolescent.
we’ll see where this goes.
a flat road to nowhere fast?
or the sky, endless?
Road Trip 2020, Day Ten
that long Kansas road
alleviated by teens
learning to drive home
Road Trip 2020, Day Eight
along a river
this fairy tale ferry stop
has stood a beacon
in muddy waters
kids get to be kids all day
while mamas paddle
nature is our home
found in Kentucky fire
lit by desire
Road Trip 2020, Day Seven
there is no escape here.
only evasion.
it’s up this curvy road packed with hill after horse-country hill,
packed with perfect fences and horses whipping their tails,
with cars zooming past, some honking at my hugging-the-shoulder presence as i pedal
pedal
pedal
past these race-won mansions,
these stacked-limestone walls that can’t trap me in or out,
into the sunny, humid heat of midday Kentucky,
so far from home, so far from home,
so near to everything that is hard and easy, up and down these endless hills
in a circle that isn’t a circle.
Road Trip 2020, Day Six (Turtles and All)
a creek paddle day
brings every boat together
for swimming and grins
Road Trip 2020, Day Five
if only these pics were perfect
as perfectly peaceful as they appear
and no one lost a phone (and all the love attached) to a lake
and no one said they hated each other
and no one lied to their mother
and no one cried.
but life isn’t this lake
this quiet Kentucky fishing lake that we ruined with six screaming kids and one barking dog
this peaceful lake for paddling or praying or both
this swimmable, all-ours, wake-free lake.
Life is this lake, isn’t it?
Perfect and not so perfect.
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