Country Road, by Patrick Connors

Winter Road, by Rosemary Komori (Canada) contemporary

Country Road
for Andrew

“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints 
the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.”
Brother André

The air is cold, but not as cold
as it would usually be in January.
You are dressed for the journey:
jacket, touque, gloves, and boots.
The dirt road is not wet or icy,  
but made uneven by tire tracks,
so you have to watch your step. 

The tire tracks are not fresh
and there are no cars on the road.
There are no people, no animals–
even your cell phone is quiet.
You learn to accept the silence,
feel your breath expand your lungs,
and fully connect with the moment.

About half a kilometre ahead, 
two clusters of leafless trees, 
one on either side of the road, 
seem to rise from patches of snow.
A mist blurs the trees like a dream
and covers what lies beyond them.
But you keep walking.

Patrick Connors
                                         
"Country Road" originally appeared with the photograph in Over the Garden Fence, an online newsletter released by Sheila Tucker in February of 2023. With text only, it was published in Poetry & Performance, Volume 1, by DesignWiseStudios, in June 2023.

Patrick Connors' first chapbook, Scarborough Songs, was released by Lyricalmyrical Press in 2013, and charted on the Toronto Poetry Map. Other publication credits include The Toronto Quarterly; Spadina Literary Review; Sharing Spaces; Tamaracks; and Tending the Fire. His first full collection, The Other Life, was released in 2021 by Mosaic Press.His new chapbook, Worth the Wait, was released this spring by Cactus Press. Join him on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/81912CON  ​