Straight Road Willows
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The friend has gone along the long straight road
With willows all along on left and right.
Their greenness does not change. The droop and load
Of leaves remains unchanged except for slight
Breeze movements, not because he walked away
But just because of breezes. In some sense
The willows are not green, though still not gray.
The friend has not departed. No deep fence
Has separated anything. The trees
Are trees. The road is still a road. The friends
Are friends. The summer does not hint at freeze
Or ice. There isn’t any hint at ends.
The friend is there and yet he is not there.
The road leads on to nowhere for this pair.
~ Phillip Whidden