Live As We Go

LIVE AS WE GO

Watching the road,
watching the wide road
a picture rolls out to us
a pavement goes under us
right and left brushes the sides;
better than movies,
bigger than TV;
a never-ending unscripted
picture-show coming live
as we go,

Watching the wide
wide roads, world's slow
to a stop and go past us,
country gets over us
and by us, we're pilgrims
watching the road to find
which way to go, where
to go for a way to be,
for a place to belong, or
a new direction to turn.

Watching the road
wide of the atlas
looking for a map of
the heart; discovering
the directory of the soul,
poring over side tracks,
and possibilities, possible
ways through the pathlessness,
searching for the next bend,
the right way, for a call
which echoes home.

Watching the uncharted
road, and going there
where we're watching,
off maps of roads already
travelled, or beneath them,
on a journey to the outer-
most step, at the stockgrid
of heaven, for the next
never-ending picture show
coming live as we go,

* * *

P.S.

Watching the deep
road, walking over
the graves of the past
to find the back story of here
where we might find how
it all came to this, how
the end might be, or could be
as what might have been, but
was not, can be seen again to
inspire with the example of
the congregation of saints
and then caution of the sinners
we travel over in time...

All the time wondering if
we do in eternity.



- written on the Mataranka Road, after heading north off the Stuart Highway. With thanks to my younger son who wrote this down as I dictated from the driver's seat. For a song lyric