I drive on a road

I used to drive down

multiple times a day

some stretch of asphalt

with a mountain view

in the time I’ve been gone

this place has not changed much

but I have

the aspens are gold now

when they were once green

and soon they will be bare

and the snows will come

the mountains rise up

to jaggedly meet the sky

some giant puzzle pieces

fitting perfectly into place

I see three deer and a blackbird

in the aspen grove

as I pass through

and the air through my windows

smells of fall

yes it has been a while

since I took these curves

and the seasons

color the landscape

with weather and life

but this place is still

what it always was

as I passed by it in the car

over decades

in the backseat

when I was young

when I could finally drive my own car

when I drove here for work

or was going home in the dark

this place is still beautiful

even though I have left it

and I think that’s one thing

we all can dream together

that all these places

we have found gorgeous

can stay so in our absence

so that we can one day return

and remember

all the beauty we have seen

and which may live forever

before and beyond us