Rural Excursions

Photo by the author.

I.
I asked him to pose
beside the Blessed Virgin
of the Roadside shrine.
He declined. I protested.
“This is the only virgin
with whom you will ever
be photographed.”
He agreed with the premise,
but proceeded to the car.

II.
He drives.
Passing skyline of refineries,
of grandiose buildings that
memorialize the growing impurities
of progress, while the sound of my shutter
is drowned out by oldies radio
where the songs of my youth
are now relegated to
provide the soundtrack
for a moving picture of
dilapidated barns and
abandoned farm equipment.

III.
Postcard souvenirs with your
inscriptions by request
will accessorize my scrapbook.
I will place it beside the empty
tin of chocolates you gave me
on my birthday, now filled with
pins and rocks and other
trinkets from our travels,
the most trips either of us
ever took, before you left on
the ultimate journey.

Originally published published in Issue 45 (May 2012) of Red Fez.