Sunrise off the Interstate

fire above, lake below

Billings, Montana — Photo by Jonathan Potter ⓒ 2024

Sunrise off the interstate
syncopates our Montana
sojourn waking up in Billings
to the music of regrets
merging into a melody
of love’s momentous consolation 

in the family of things, 
in shared memories and plans,
in the motel breakfast buffet,
in the foibles of friendship
and the knowing what not to say
when politics and friendship collide.

At the Wyoming state line
meadowlarks begin to sing
in earnest with cricket chorus,
and the smell of wild flowers —
despite horrific history —
triggers a beatific vision

of yin and yang united
like the rolling hills and sky 
carrying us past Sheridan
through a landscape rife with ghosts
to get the car washed in Gillette
on the way to the Devils Tower.

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