Our driveway and yard have been neighborhood shortcuts long before we moved here. We couldn’t refuse them, now, could we?

The kids, especially, still use it to get to the school bus in the morning and home again in the afternoon. We know some of the posse. Others, we’ll ask about.

One winter, with snow piled high in the Swamp, I learned to cross-country ski in the loop I carved around the periphery – including the precipice I finally more or less mastered.

The rest of the year, I can recognize pathways we maintain through the various beds and plantings.

I think there’s a bit of excitement in cutting across the grass or through a hole in the fence, compared to a sidewalk. Or for playing a variation of tag at dusk.

TRAILINGS

you could build boring straight lines
or else add curves or maze-figures

~*~

with the neighbors hosting Soupa
girls squealing kick-the-can
scurry amid carnival sounds

look, there’s a flurry, along the bushes

 poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson

 ~*~

For more on my home and garden poetry collections, click here.