Picnic

       
        The Land Rover leaps up off the road
        lurch lunging up a cliff with all the bounce and bound
        of crashing down a cliff...

        Squeeze through an eroding pass
        with scarcely a thread breadth on both sides,         
        scarcely a thread breadth between us and a
        steep tumble down bounce and crash
        precipice.

        Crunch up a landscape
        that leaves no trace of our passage,
        just tumbled rocks and dust
        that dance.
    
        Choose a spot-
        sameness spans all sight,
        its only distinction is
        that the Land Rover
        has stopped.

        Spill out to feast on pita bread
        and goat cheese sandwiches-
        Food that doesn't mind being squished.

        Step delicately among goat turd
        and minuscule wildflower;
        it's quite easy to twist an ankle
        on windswept rock.
        
        Eyes flit over the treacherous track
        it will take to return;
        a swig of cool water from a jar
        empowers
        and off we go.



poem copyright ©2000 Anne Selden Annab