We Embark as Passengers

 We Embark as Passengers

(“May he give you what your heart wishes for. May he make all your plans succeed.” Psalm 20:4)

We embark as passengers,
take our seats, yawn our way into
the excursion
and wonder about the eyes that gaze upward.
We watch the eyes of those who gaze upward.

Prepaid, our tickets are not punched,
no baggage, just a few snacks to tide us over.
We hear the whistle of cow’s breath,
the drifting of black-eyed susans passing
a day in the sun. We wonder at yellow
and mustard. We watch the canola grow.

Our destination is not fixed, we may wander.
After a day of travel our weariness gives way
to curiosity. Who named the jonquils? Who
painted bananas? And do you remember the girl
whose hair was like daisies?

Long before these tracks were laid down,
long before engines and asphalt,
others traversed the open sky from the
middle of the continent. Did they dream of
oceans, or create myths to explain them?

We feel the ancestors within us,
we feel the pulse of their ancient songs
as they keep time to the long train grinding
through the valley into the next depot. What
sunsets await us in the crowd gathered for the
next ride out of town?