Metsovo
Metsovo
The bus forges upstream
round hairpins and blind turns
rising through foothills
into mountains
finding rooms in stumbling Greek,
sweat bruising our clothes
where rucksack straps crossed
shoulders
in the baking afternoon
we fall asleep
on hard mattresses
woollen rugs
pulled up by stranger's hands
late afternoon
waking to goatbells
the diminishing herd,
each one following
its tributory to source,
heading home.
The sense of travelling
a distance carried on
beyond the journey.
_
The bus forges upstream
round hairpins and blind turns
rising through foothills
into mountains
finding rooms in stumbling Greek,
sweat bruising our clothes
where rucksack straps crossed
shoulders
in the baking afternoon
we fall asleep
on hard mattresses
woollen rugs
pulled up by stranger's hands
late afternoon
waking to goatbells
the diminishing herd,
each one following
its tributory to source,
heading home.
The sense of travelling
a distance carried on
beyond the journey.
_