A woman aged well with life and years
Travels an unwanted journey along a highway
There’s not much to bring her home to this past
Raw, physical reminders of a life no more
Change…inevitable.


She looks out across the fields bordering the road
Her last trip along this asphalt found the ground covered in crop
White cotton giving the façade of a fresh fallen snow
Now only with mounds of dirt scattered with stems and leaves
Change…inevitable.

She passes a creek slowly streaming along her path
Her child’s laughter once echoed off of the surface
A time of play within its warm summer water
Over years its course narrowed by fallen limbs and overgrown roots
Change…inevitable.

She passes a man walking across the lawn of one of many homes peppering the road
Hours he spent tirelessly beautifying its landscape
His steps slow and cautious—his back bent hovering over his feet
A walk to his mailbox to be his most strenuous activity
Change…inevitable.

She stares at the church seen at the end of the road
A wooden building set before a path of stone and dirt
Through mature eyes it is but a small one room building
Yet through her youthful eyes she had envisioned it a cathedral
Change…inevitable.

She walks through the doors
Along carpet no longer plush from years of footsteps
No notice is given to the expression upon the faces of those watching
She stares only at the shine of the wooden box
Change…inevitable.

She reaches into her pocket to hold the crumbled letter
Her hands shaking as they had done each and every time she had read it
Lightly she kisses the paper holding the last words she would ever hear
A tear falls from her eye to dampen the paper held against her cheek
Change…inevitable.

The church nothing but a speck in a rearview’s mirror
The feeble man sits on his porch next to the woman who had shared his life
The creek’s water ripples as children skips stones across it surface
An irrigation system sprinkles across the field in preparation of a new crop
The road before her aged well with life and years now a new journey to be had
Change…inevitable.
A love…everlasting.