Dirt Roads of Mexico

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Dirt Roads in Mexico

From our village to nearby mountains
we walk a dirt road -
curves and wanderings, dips, and rises,
like a human body,
bordered always by flowering weeds.

Footprint and tire track stories
begin after each rain a new chapter
in an old tale.

Children dream-walk with us
listening, watching,
posing unconsciously a thousand times
for imaginary photos in a coffee table book
of ancient tranquility.

Each fence post, a weathered tree branch,
tells a story of its life as a limb -
each post a poem.

Children ask for the far-off-word,
the English word, for this or that.
Birds float in high meditation circles.

Two dogs tag along
and at each group decision they seem to say: “whatever.”

Oh the awful deep down torrent,
deities of dirt roads,
outcries of time,
tears of mortality.