the year ahead it opens filled
with miles of possibility
is that the reason we rejoice
with starburst skies and fiery
liquor in our bowels. Or is it just
a dance macabre for bygone trails
all those we took, all those forsook
pasted into travelogues.

And with some maps and bucket lists
venturers go where adventure's planned
to foreign lands and overseas
collecting myriad things to see
along the highways, fast and free.
But this stop's where I disembark
the unhitched hiker on her path
to walk the line, footsore and slow
uncertain where the slip roads go.

19 thoughts on “the unhitched hiker”

1. First of all, I love the title!! A hopeful poem that nails the possibilities of the future wonderfully! So glad you joined us this week Laura! Happy New Year to you and yours!! 🎉✍️🤩

   1. thank you Carrie and for hosting on this New Year day – glad you read some optimism in the poem – it is uncertain!

2. I’m sort of uncertain where the slip roads go too, Laura. Our poems have a similar theme. Have a good New Year!

   1. must be an age thing! hope your 2022 is less uncertain, Bev

3. ❤ Laura ❤ – Happy New Year to you and yours!

   -David

   1. no matter how many I celebrate in a year, the future dims! all the best and thank you David

4. beautiful, poignant, honest, you can’t ask for more from a poem.

   1. three lovely words – thank you so much Lisa – and wishing you a happy 2022

      1. You’re very welcome, Laura, and to you ❤

5. Love your ponderings, your wanderings in this beautifully composed New Year Poem. Cheers and Happy Happy.

   1. thank you Helen – this one seemed to unravel before me just like the open road

6. This is a pure delight to read. “uncertain where the slip roads go” is a phrase uttered by many of us I imagine.

   1. thank you Jude – that uncertainty is perhaps especially for any of us older ones

7. Well written, Laura!

   1. I appreciate that Charley!

8. Those last few lines of the first stanza (“Or is it just//a danse macabre…” just blew me away.

   1. thank you for being blown!

9. I love the idea of the unhitched hiker.

   1. that same one that takes the road less travelled!

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