The Road Between

Keswick and Penrith
the sum of the miles
between the signs
sometimes 16
sometimes 18
as the elastic road
pulls taught around dales
loose through valleys.

Stone walls sift the land
into workable chunks.
Lines of yellow-headed pines
comb clouds into creeping fingers,
hug screes smother waterfalls
blot a rainbow at each tail.

The decay of copper summer
into umber autumn:
the road between
our arc, our gold.