Are You That Woman

Ommm to Trappe Road

It is motoring meditation
Along the rutted back roads of my Virginia homeland.
Handlaid rock walls and split-rail fences
Lace the boundaries of historic farms and country estates.
Songbirds — blue, red and yellow — dart like rainbows
Across the road and zigzag trees thick with greenery.
Buddha cows wade through the velvet of belly-deep grass,
While weathered farmers practice the Zen
    of John Deere and Toro.

Proceed with caution:  Suburbia ahead.

Barbara L. Steinberg
Bluemont, Virginia
June 2003

Just Breathe

On a slow glide towards swollen waters of the Yolo Sea,
A lone cormorant sets its landing gear, 
Braced against his final approach.
The highway stretches before me
To a shallow sky and
Sierra Nevada fat with snow.

Barbara L. Steinberg
Yolo Causeway
March 8, 2006