The Question

The road bends and disappears.

The sky looks down and sees it go

wherever it goes among distant hills.

But we, who are only standing here,

see the road bend, and disappear.


We can think like the sky, but only know

the color of trees, the curve of the hill

where the road bends and disappears.

We can picture how it curves and goes,

but cannot know as the sky knows.


Flat people, we're not big like hills,

or arched like the round, blue-pupiled sky

and can see only what flat people see.

Unlikely the road should end, yet still

hills don't need highways to be hills.


And we could imagine a reason why

the road might end just beyond those trees,

might come to a stop and go nowhere,

might simply peter out and die,

with or without a reason why.


Meanwhile, the sky sees what the sky

sees--a road bending among dark trees,

and beyond the trees, round-headed hills,

and knows what only the sky can know--

how the road curves on, or disappears.


Copyright 2010-2012 Paul Petrie