In Motion

Sometimes as I fly along
First New Hampshire Turnpike
in Northwood I think of Donald Hall’s
Oxcart Man, which house or
tree would have seen him.

At Nottingham Square, where monuments
to Revolutionary War generals now pale,
I wonder if the air in fact was so clear
the crackle of cannon discharging from Breeds
or Bunker Hill aroused the village militia
to muster and march fifty-some miles to battle.

At Deerfield Parade, I imagine
men bearing muskets
who talk of liberty and rebellion
outside their orderly houses.
Left foot, right foot, you can bet
none of them look favorably on taxes.