A Valley View

To my left,
you, in the driver’s seat.
Chlorophyll, to my right,

through the windowglass, green tipping
to black, tipping to gold, shivering.
Green hills, further on, shading

to blue. Fuzzed slopes, lovable, rolling down down.
Awkward weeds, sprigged, not wheat and won’t feed anyone.
All is Dutch, set out for display and gain.

I’ve come to a conclusion about happiness: I want it.
You say “Sometimes you’ve got
to bust a move.” How would I do that?

Through the windowglass I can get a fearsome burn.
Thus I’m spf’d. I must earn.
On my lap, folderful of papers to which I should turn

but the sun does her thing: down down.
We don’t see her cooling, but we gain
from her careful campaign.

Goodbye glimpse, speed past,
the green consummation tracks
everwards, lost—

Lost me, lost you,
lost green hills shading to blue
and lost the valley view….

Credit

Copyright © 2017 by Kathleen Ossip. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 22, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“The journey I’ve taken most often in my life is the drive on the New York State Thruway from my house in Westchester County, just north of the Bronx, to Albany, where I grew up. I’ve seen more dramatic landscapes, but a valley view is still my favorite kind of view, even when anxieties intrude.”
—Kathleen Ossip