A Sunday Afternoon Poem

Towards fear

It's a game now, to see what road
I can follow to a place of fear.

Today I went up and over a sand dune
to meet the ocean crashing - one wave

roared ashore and chased me up the path,
swallowed my footprints in the sand.

I ran ahead to safety, and turned back
to look at the foamy remains, gravity

pulling that spent rogue back to the flock,
leaving me breathless and triumphant.

Later I walked the Long Point loop,
a rutted, muddy road of oaks and pines

that led me further and further  east to
nowhere; as the sun set, I turned back,

away from the coming darkness,
content with my hour in the shadowy

forest, a magical place of mossy carpets,
fallen limbs, and endless bends in the road.

~   Susie Middleton