The Sheltered Path
by Michael Escoubas

Who doesn’t need a moment
to be with himself? Who
doesn’t need a place where only
he can go, that only he knows?

How sweet this morning air
fragranced by the lilac bush
and honeysuckle tree. And then
there is the distant blue beyond

the tree line you’re walking toward.
There is something about this place
and the freedom felt in open air.
You left the clamor of the city

with its odors of horse and coal,
with its irreverent shouts of Go
faster, do more, give your soul
for tomorrow’s forgotten success.

You’ve chosen the better path.
Your shoes collect dust but find
their way to life in open air
in a place where only you can go.




After, The Sheltered Path, by Claude Monet, painted in 1873.

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