Full Day

(Found here)

The pilot on the plane says:

In one minute and fifty seconds

we’re going as far

as the covered wagon went

in a full day.

We look down

on clouds,

mountains of froth and foam.

We eat a neat

and subdivided lunch.

How was it for the people in

the covered wagon?

They bumped and jostled.

Their wheels broke.

Their biscuits were tough.

They got hot and cold and old.

Their shirts tore on the branches

they passed.

But they saw the pebbles

and the long grass

and the sweet shine of evening

settling on the fields.

They knew the ruts and the rocks.

They threw their furniture out

to make the wagons lighter.

They carried their treasures

in a crooked box.

~Naomi Shihab Nye