Destruction on the Highway

Years ago I could drive towards this small community
and instantly feel soothed from the vision that met my eyes,
the sheer beauty I beheld in every direction I looked.
Nature as ancient as it had been before my time.
Complete harmony.

Harmony is a two lane road surrounded on both sides by
a wall of trees so tall and slender, waving in the breeze.
Scores of wildflowers growing in the ditches,
nodding their colorful heads in salute to the passerbys.
Hello beautiful.

A picture so beautiful to me, I couldn't drive quickly
for one never knew what waited over the next hill or curve.
Maybe a deer taking its time to cross the road,
Perhaps a bulky set of racoons looking for their next meal.
Picture perfect!

It was so perfect that time didn't matter to me at all.
Time was nonexistent for this short little intermission.
Where else could I feel so relaxed and yet so in tune
to everything around me, before me, behind me.
Another world.

The world ahead awaited for me ever too soon.
I took one more look behind, in my mirror
and heaved a big sigh that it was over for the moment.
The trip back would be something to look forward to.
Vision gone.

The vision has been replayed many times in my mind
and always it has made me feel refreshed and renewed.
To me it was as though I had entered and exited
a lost world just for a brief period of time.
Time travel.

Time has passed and now, what can I say? What can I do?
There is nothing, and yet I can't help but
feel anger and resentment at what was destroyed,
massacred, gone in a flash! So insidious, so
greedy in the name of progress. It is done.
No more.


espero
Line Count 36
Words 332