"no place" -- my first blog post in more than a year, drawn from an experience almost exactly four years ago

near Puerto de Ibañeta (Roncesvalles Pass) 

in the Spanish Pyrenees

no place 

and the road 

wound slowly 

and steadily 

up 

a grueling grade 

no variance 

no up and down 

just up 

through curve and 

straight up 

and curve again and 

straight up again 

and again and again to the high snowbound 

pass 

invisible in fog and early December twilight 

and along the shoulders the snow pushed there 

by the steel blades of the snow plows 

were made into mountains and valleys 

of a smaller landscape of their own

until there was no place to step off

the cold wet black near-frozen pavement

unyielding in its hard brutal asphalt 

to pounding heavily weighted foot step 

no place to step off except into deep snow 

no place to rest the pain in feet and back and joint

no place to sit quiet and still in the silence of frozen air 

no place to take a piss 

                                                          23 November 2021