Full Circle

After the cold, depressing winter rains,
he woke to find the crying sky had cleared
and so he left the stifling room behind
and walked bright-eyed into the bright-eyed dawn,
a clean spring morning. Early traffic ran
its rumbling course down hill and there were birds,
a barking dog, and cattle lowed afar -
a day of brilliant promise. Still, inside
his head there were the silent years: the frost
of failure still lay in his hands, the long,
lost journey through a hostile landscape was
not over yet, nor would it ever be -
and when he heard a woman’s laughter, warm
but far more distant than the stars, he stepped
aside to meet the impact of a car.