Driving lessons

The ABC of driving, the instructor tells me

are the accelerator, brake and clutch.

And warns that if I accelerate alone and don’t brake

then we all have to clutch at something to hold on to.

But soon I realize that the car is not capable of all that.

The only thing that works perfectly is the heating.

The rest of the alphabet of driving, he says, is to watch

other people on the road - both moving and standing still.

Only when I am at the wheel I see all these unnecessary people

on the road whom I would like to delete from the scene.

Honking can do this trick, he instructs, if the sound

is loud enough to be an extension of my disgust. 

Report from the hills

The view of the distant snow-clad mountains

made up for the lack of any paintings on the walls.

It was snowing during spring which the locals said

was very rare - as rare as our vacations.

We did nothing during the entire stay.

This is totally different from the nothing of the plains.

Wrapped in fleece blankets we looked like sketch pens

tightly packed in twos for warmth and ease.

The next day, the sky was clear and we could see

the mountains shake the snow off.

While we struggled to keep it within us

as we went downhill.