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Lynne Viti is a lecturer emerita in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. She is the author of two previous poetry collections, Baltimore Girls and The Glamorganshire Bible, and the recently published Going Too Fast: Stories. Her website is at lynneviti.wordpress.com.

At Hale Reservation

Lynne Viti

The road rises before us, a winding asphalt path

through woods, trailheads behind stone walls,

traces of colonial farmhouses and work-roads

where ox-carts dragged granite from to Boston and beyond.

Did the ghosts of those who worked this land

suffer smallpox, think of themselves as

sinners in the hands of an angry God,

believe they were not among the Elect

or were they stoic, philosophical?

Families with their dogs, pairs of adults, runners

walk ahead, or pass us going the opposite way.

In strong sunlight we shed our gloves, tie our puffy jackets

around our waists, look for messages of spring—

trees budding, a spot of new green emerging

from leaf-beds. These signs are scant,

the season holds back, but we crave any hint

to reassure us something better‘s on the way.

After that first week of shutting ourselves up in the house,

we already miss what we used to complain about,

jobs grudgingly performed, or obligations we had to meet.

We turn the last corner, arrive at the parking lot,

climb into the car, sanitize our hands—

a secular ritual that’s as close to sacred

as we have in these strange days.

— Lynne Viti

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