THE ROAD

Plastered on the edge of a road she sits making marks in the tarmac. But they do not last too long and the sun melts the tarmac back into the smooth surface of the road. So she gives up with the scratching. She begins instead to dig and to dig hard underneath the tarmac. She digs up mounds of earth rinsing her fingers through its coolness until each piece is toasted and dried by the sun. Then she rubs it into dust and it flies up past her. The tarmac pours back into its settled place as the day progresses. There is nothing for it. She can not get a hold of it this way. She steps onto the road and moves off. For she knows that she has to go to escape the road.