Pilgrimage

We set off before first light
the pre-dawn drive straining the eye.
Assaulted by pulsing headlights, my sight
tried to race ahead, to preview the majesty
of the village beneath the hill,
a return to a bygone age
where we imagined all yet still.
It was a pilgrimage
even if we struggled in the car
and traveling wasted too much of the day.
'That’s just the way things are'
you said. We were about halfway
stopping for lunch at noon
already resigned to return far too soon.