driving home

The sun set just before we turned west onto the road
that curved into the pure black landscape silhouetted
against the absolutely clear tangerine and indigo sky.

As our headlights revealed and dismissed the familiar
meanderings of this riverside route and its clusters of cottages
the sky disappeared, leaving us to spelunk our way

against the temporal shift, the montage of trips past
the newlyweds, the car full of little kids and toys,
the silent obstinate teenagers, the tearful adults departing.

We are silent, nothing needs saying. I think we’re both smiling.
Everything changes; this cave is ours and always the same.