Highland Boulevard by Bruce Morton

Highland Boulevard

I do not know if it was conceived as a grand design
Or the work of someone who had an appreciation
For metaphor and science, or who had just a sense
Of humor, because it is kind of funny in its naturally
Morbid way. Down the boulevard it is all progression
As gravity and life conflate, each a force doing what
It does. Sometimes you cannot help but be struck
By how things are laid out, a plot set to play out.
Be it plan or coincidence, it is genius nevertheless.
Not to mention logical in its simple elegance.
You make your way to the top of the hill,
Where the water tank looms large, a sentinel,
A monument to quench the thirst of affluence,
A resource that greedily absorbs the landscape,
Which from there flows down hill, sloping to
Main Street and the hum and drum of our daily
Life. It unfolds in order, as if by some divine
Invention, or intervention. Here, newly built, are
The upscale homes for senior citizens,
Then the apartments for those who desire
And can afford independent living nestled close
Up against the building for assisted living—as if
Anyone has ever lived unassisted. Next there
Are the offices that house the doctors, all specialties
Stacked for diagnosis and prognosis, each enjambed
To the hospital with its red-roofed emergency room,
A veritable medical smorgasbord. It is a complex
Thing this inevitable slide down the boulevard,
Nature at work, no control to the roll—such is
The nature of it. Until we must cross over
The street to the mortuary-crematorium, funereal
With its black smoke rising above its black hearse,
A dark cloud polluting our small universe.
Conveniently, we need only drive back across
The boulevard to Sunset Hills Cemetery, a misnomer
Because it is located at the east end of town.
Perhaps in consideration of reincarnation?
Situated between mortuary and cemetery is
A pre-school, its children loud with play,
A seeming incongruence. We sometimes see them
Cheerfully queued, plodding on the sidewalk
Up the boulevard, blissfully defying gravity.

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Bruce Morton divides his time between Montana and Arizona. He is the author of two poetry collections: Planet Mort (2024) and Simple Arithmetic & Other Artifices (2014). His poems have appeared in numerous online and print venues. He was formerly dean at the Montana State University library.