From one end of the continent to the other, here is a poem by Tom Sexton, written on the road last last spring as he and his wife, Sharyn, made their way from Maine back to Alaska for another season. We do have our far-flung correspondents. Tom Sexton is a former Poet Laureate of Alaska and on the list of Distinguished Alumni of Lowell High School. He is the author of many collections of poetry.—PM

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A Ladder of Cranes

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On a Sunday afternoon west of Winnipeg

without a truck on our tail for mile after mile,

past fields still covered with melted snow,

beneath a sky so clear it seems about to disappear,

while we’re listening to a soprano singing

Schubert’s Ave Maria on the car’s radio,

a ladder of cranes lifting, moving away

above a windbreak with almost visible leaves.

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—Tom Sexton (c) 2013