Leaving Ithaca


Just leaving Ithaca
With gorges of slate
And waterfalls of summer
Fed by torrential rains
Scattered through the hillsides
Buried deep in the land

Just leaving Ithaca
Riding on a bike
Pulling out a hand drawn map
Which I read as I ride
Riding a steel framed bike
Slowly up the impossibly steep hills
And laughing on the roller coaster
Rides down

Just leaving Ithaca
In the early morning rain
Hanging my camera over Taughanook
And thinking that 215 feet of free falling water
Is just a number
Just a superlative
For sublime beauty, on a day of rain and mist
Is without number

Just leaving Ithaca
Heading south on Route 81
Hearing the cries at Gettysburg
Passing strip malls
And strip mines
Hills with coal seeping black
Anthracite pits and tourist towns

Just leaving Ithaca
And an Eco Village
With old friends
Gardens of flowers
Berries getting summer ripe
Vegetables on raised beds
Smothered in compost
Bumper stickers on cars
That remind me of
Raised beds of morality-
Smothered perhaps even more in compost

Just leaving Ithaca
And a long summer on the road
So distant from the last one
Yet always on my mind
Always lurking somewhere
Just to the Middle East
Thankful for another summer
Another day
Beating rain on our tent
Waves breaking on Lake Ontario
Rivera sunsets
Leaving Ithaca