Overland Encounter

Sun barely up
Adam from my sleeping bag
Mozzie net slung, hitched to the truck
Tents perched like cocoons litter the site
Imagined, impenetrable islands
All else laid bare

Staring beyond the present
A thousand scenes
Ruins, plains, trains and the like
Flickering, a peep show
Camera captured

The Carpenter's wake me from my revelry
"Say goodbye to love" "Yesterday once more"
My morning ritual to ensnare me to the present
The punters stir
Tent pegs pulled, sleeping bags rolled
Breakfast like cold leftovers

Today Krak des Chevaliers, Taj Mahal
Peshawar, anyone an AK47 to shoot
My 10 ton Bedford rolls on
Inching along tireless tracks
Where horses crapped
Mayans roamed

We smell like dogs, the great unwashed
Yet we don't smell these insignificant things
Daily mundane, of little concern to the wider wonder
Eyes almost incapable of perceiving all
Of grass greener, hills higher
The Bedford rumbles on

Endless deserts and crushed humanity peter out
Desert rain and poverty abates
Once again I meet glass panels, concrete surgeons
Traffic mechanisms and postage stamps interrupt my Scrutiny
My front door beckons
My castle, my prison