A Wide Road to the Thin South

Yes a literary allusion

Resembles a tree

By the side of the road

Chopped down

Then promptly falling

     —Oh dear—

Directly across

The same road

So that you’ll now

Never get where you were

Headed by traveling

This way

Follow instead

The birdsong

It’s sound advice

I mean both

Trustworthy and aural

Besides the obvious

One rarely talks of a painter’s ear

I first read Bashō aloud

To my mother

On a drive from somewhere

To somewhere scenically else

The covered-wagon majesty

Of the hills was all that stuck

Uneventful memories

Like the best calligraphy

First are pictures

Then words

Finally they look

A bit like a bunch

Of people pointing

At a huge tree

The one blocking our car

From continuing

Down the road