THE PATH
Near my old ancestral home is a village
at whose tree-lined edge
a path begins
which doesn’t end until it turns
at last the corner
at the horn of Africa
and dries up on a beach.
Its reach
requires that it twice slide into the ocean
with no more concern
than when a car dips
into a valley filled with mist
emerging with its lights still lit
the bonnet wet
and the passengers none the wiser
at the next rise.
It is only as wide
as two horses side by side
and thin
from many months of walking.
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BEN PARKER‘s debut pamphlet The Escape Artists is due from the tall-lighthouse press in November 2012.
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