A Greener Patch

Next to the modern protocol which tethered me
Stood a greener patch cut by a paved, shaded road.
It curved and branched
And promised, if I stayed loyal,
Visits with a murmuring creek
Before sloping down to the border of the woods.

I’d like to remember the patch as a frequented place
Sort of a forest emerging past winter
As having a more affectionate claim to my daylight routine.
So I anticipated it whenever driving south on I-495,
but of course I was idealizing there and then.

Not the one Not Taken [1]
The road in the patch was well-trodden.
Diverging to labeled parking lots and orderly buildings
Now vacated
Its convenient loop had shuttled people between obligations.
And that was how I always found my way back
After a lunch-time excursion.

And what an excursion it had been!
Beside a haughty lamppost dressed in verdant vines
A basketball hoop clung to a backboard, rusty but not rotten.
I mocked it with an unblocked jump –
The net was as durable as it must have been
In days of shots and hustle.

Easily spotted was a swimming pool
If one glanced through a broad glass window
Maintained up-to-date, with a Jacuzzi that still bubbled.
To send germs to whirlpool
Or to amuse themselves
Custodians were minding something surreal.

That thought discomforted me
So I advanced briskly to the edge of
The woods, to shake it off
To immerse myself in a chirping concerto.
There invisible feathered midgets would sing
One fountain after another
Rising above muffled bass of nearby highways.
'Tis the sound of border -
I felt alive in its bizarre contrast
When safe in the knowledge of a sure retreat.
That is, until the day the protocol bid us severed.

Only then did I notice a greener piece by the sidewalk
Dotted with sunny daisies bursting lowly and
Orange-bellied birds pecking vigorously
Both of which, in spite of my footsteps,
Attending to ancient obligations at their own pace
Wild flowers and worthless sparrows, [2]
“How careless and brief?” I wondered,
And shuddered at my little faith.
So typical of a tethered animal,
That I had been, and wanted to be.

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Note
1. Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
2. Matthew 6:25-34

中文版《較綠之地》