The Walk

I get up at 5 AM on a cool May morning to be obedient

I put on my reflective vest for safety

Head down the street to the intersection

And…

I turn to the east

Looking uphill, the bottoms of the clouds are still indigo

I pass a crabapple tree holding onto its gorgeous blooms

The sweet smell of spring making me smile

Past the park and birds making noise

Like an orchestra warming up.

So many voices and such beautiful sounds

You want to grab a chair and take in the show

The song waning as I approach the highway

As I topped the hill the bottom of the clouds had turned bright pink

And…

I turn to the north

The highway already loud with early morning commuters

A monument to the victorious larger city

That swallowed the small town and turned it into a suburb.

Litter speckled the road

The grittiness of the metro scowered the country gray

Rundown industrial buildings make me uncomfortable

One lone bird challenged the city,

Filling its lungs and screaming its song

But barely being heard behind the numbing hum

I cross the major road

The sky was turning a bright orange

Glimmers of brightness poking up from the horizon

And…

I turn to the west

Into the past and down the town’s old main street

Buildings of importance and necessity

Harrowing back to a lost time

Before technology had dismantled us

The original residers long gone

Replaced with new business and hopes

The birds living in the trees lining the streets brightly singing

The town was alive within the city

And although it was forever changed

It was still it’s own

The emerging light behind me

Reflecting back at me in the windows that lay ahead

The clouds in the west had started wearing their purple hues

And…

I turn to the south

I look to the left

The sky exploding in peach, apricot, and bright yellow

Driving away the long cool night

The store’s sign telling me

Everything must go before the new inventory arrives

I cross the major road again

The shift turnover was clogging the street, coming and going

Even more birds were chiming in

Intoxicating lilacs motivating me faster

The western clouds had turned red

And…

I turn to the east

The sun just coming over the horizon

The colors of the Earth waking with it

And the remaining birds join the crowd

Applauding the new day, and my motivation

A crow flew past me, heading west

So close I could hear his black wings pushing the air

A seagull was flying toward the east

High in the sky glowing yellow with the dawn

I push to my street and head toward my house.