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