A Good Place - March 29 2023

 

A Good Place

March 29 2023

We're far away from everything.

Living in a hinterland like this

   —  the boonies, bush, sticks  —

you feel detached,

a boring backwater

where nothing ever happens,

and if it did

who would know?

Protected, as well.

Because war, pestilence, famine

are always somewhere else.

The most excitement here

is a bear wandering through town,

and breaking news

is revised hours

at the local dump.

Attached by a single highway

   —   a long ribbon

of bad asphalt

impassable in heavy snow   —

we observe the world through screens

and glossy magazines,

listen in

by means of radio waves.

And when I first moved here

the big city paper

came a day or two late

if it came at all.

But still

human passions are everywhere,

even here.

Behind the closed doors and drawn shades.

Behind the dark glasses the lady next door

wears to the Shop 'n Save

and doesn't take off.

In the alley behind the tavern

where empty bottles clink

and voices are raised.

Small dramas

and lives changed.

No wars

affairs of state

or worlds changed,

but notable just the same.

A good place

for peace and quiet.

A good place

to hide out.

A good place

to keep a secret

just between ourselves.