The World According To Ben Part 19 ..The Most Interesting Poet In The World Takes The Old Riv For A

Driving North Through Lititz In The Riviera”

(A Double Sonnet)

Miniscule scooter whines through intersection. Two up: a couple. That much is quite clear. Matched jackets, helmets bespeak deep affection. Ah, love… but overloaded bike pays dear.

Turn left on Broad Street. Leaf aroma surges: Not burning piles, just their scent as they fly On trickster breeze. An oak squadron emerges And nearly fills back seats as I drive by.

On to The Square. I make a shallow right. East Main. The Riviera’s now on view. The car gets waves and lots of pearly whites. Guy yells “Nice Ride!” from wheel of Subaru.

“You too!” I shout. “I have a Roo at home!” He grins like a crazed flesh/blood garden gnome.

Left on Water. One block. Old R.C. church On corner once boasted a pointy steeple; Now has a castle tower—lofty perch, Preferred, I guess, by extroverted people.

I’m wafting north. Jazz on the radio. Mel Tormé croons—Newport to Brunnerville. The harvest view. “The Velvet Fog.” I glow. Great car, sights, sounds. I never get my fill.

Left onto Lexington. Right at Dridge Hill. I descend through a cathedral of trees That seems ablaze. Then, S curve past the mill, The pond, the geese, the horses… “Could you please

Just let this lovely feeling last forever?,” Tormé sings. Driveway. Front to “Park” goes lever.

For your consideration: local color at the most colorful time of year in my native locality. I’d been to Lancaster Cars & Coffee at Autohaus, made my charitable contribution to Aaron’s Acres, chewed the fat with car buddies old and new, then decided to have a relaxed, sunny drive home. Today’s poem depicts the last five-or-so miles of that drive, which actually occurred this past Saturday.