Remember the old road

remember the old road
the steep stony path
That took us up from Rajpur
Toiling and sweating
And grumbling at the climb
But enjoying it all the same.

At first the hills were hot and bare
But then there were trees near Jharipani
And we stopped at the Halfway House
And swallowed lungfuls of diamond-cut air
Then onwards, upwards, to the town
Our appetites to repair!

Well, no one uses the old road anymore
Walking is out of fashion now
And if you have a car to take you
Swiftly up the motor road
Why bother to toil up ad disused path?

You’d have to be an old romantic like me
To want to take that route again.

But I did it last year
Pausing and plodding and gasping for air
Both road and I being a little worse for wear!
But I made it to the top and stopped to rest
And looked down to the valley and the silver stream
Winding its way down the plains.

And the land stetched out before me,
and the years fell away
And I was a boy again
And the friends of my youth were there beside me
And nothing had changed.