Continental Drift

Continental Drift

Firm handshake exchanged,
and an attempt at something like a hug
half done. We left our cars,
and the world they came from,
and began to walk.

Hours drifted beneath a big sky,
the sun warmed us, we moved
and meandered in
and out of conversation.

And we wound our way back
to the spot where we'd begun.
It didn't matter what time it took,
what counted was that we reached our end.

We took the elm tallest of the forest's trees
as an anchor. At our furthest point
we had its crown fixed firm upon
horizon.

And it was as we walked across fields
that you recalled the first line of your book,
'The stories of entire continents
cannot be adequately told in
single volume histories."

You smiled at how it took so long
to find those opening words, And while
1 am sure that you are right in what you say

1 don't think it half so hard to capture a continent
as it would be to set down
what has passed between us.

Things must have changed,
or so 1 believed,
thoughts ill bred in a welter of silence
would cloud the air and touch still waters.

But instead we picked up the beat
and went on -
orbiting each other.

The elm remained rooted
and we made our way towards it
when far off it was easy.
Yet as we approached the tree began to vanish.

Neil Elder