Paths

Not the trains,

But the broken ties

Of the abandoned railway.

***

Not the highway,

But the trails, overgrown, buried

under rotted trees.

***

The derailments of an unplanned life.

The wanderings of an uncompassed hike.

***

Too late now for Romeo,

I hunt the tracks beneath the rust

The path beneath the brush.

***

Walking up the pebbled driveway

To your white new door

Empty hands,

This beating heart,

A cup of breath.