Two Hours Traffic - Heroes of the Sidewalk - Tara Abel

This post could not come at a more opportune moment: just after that really cold spell of January, just as mornings, still pitch black, are harder to wake up to, just as the ice becomes slush and our world becomes a dull kaleidoscope of grey. It is during late January that we actively seek out signs of Spring and yearn for the days of Summer. Tara's project provides an escape from the dreary days of Winter and throws us into a Summer not too long past. Celebratory while simultaneously downhearted, Tara captures perfectly the "clumsiness of youth," our susceptibility to the future and reconciles with the paths that separate us, inevitably so.

Tara draws her inspiration from the track "Heroes of the Sidewalk" by Two Hours Traffic. Two Hours Traffic is from Charlottetown, PEI and formed in 2000. I encourage you to listen to the track below before diving into Tara's poem. If you like what you hear, visit Two Hour Traffic's website. Now, I leave you to Tara and her beautiful project.

* * *

I hadn't listened to "Heroes of the Sidewalk" in quite a while but I suddenly found myself playing it on repeat. I realized that the song will forever remind me of Summer and a certain camping trip that I went on with my close friends a few years back. In the car, I remember hearing it play over and over, and I was hooked. That camping trip was one of the last big events that I recall spending with (some of the members of) that group of friends, before most of use started to really go our own ways. There isn't really a non-cheesy way to say it, so I'll just say that "Heroes of the Sidewalk" had me missing old times, and dear friends. This poem is the result of a nostalgic Tuesday afternoon.

setting out
into the last of the summer's heat
rattling down the highway
stopping far too often
hearts too elated to be bothered
by all the time that was escaping them

quiet dusty towns on yet another flat stretch
roads starting to disappear
hidden by a great depth of trees
this was it

with stars as the only thing
puncturing the black
they shrank close together
trying to defend one another from the cold
falling, laughing

they conquered the mountain
side by side, they stood at the top
letting the hues of pink and orange enchant them
they tried to hold it captive
still after still
they didn't know

quirks they had grown to
hold so dear
adventure they had dreamed of together
would render them apart
over and down the hills
watching the dust settle in their wake

now
only a fiercely loyal few return
when they're together
sometimes there's an air
reminiscent of the warmth of their summertime
stumbling nights
crossing over fences
running through fields hidden by darkness
not knowing where their feet would land
the clumsiness of their youth

they didn't know
when was the instance
that they'd moved on

* * *

This is Tara Abel's second contribution to Art 4 Art. You can find her first project inspired by Samantha Savage Smith here. For more on Tara and her other work, visit the contributors page  or her blog Maybe, Matilda.