Abounding Landscape

About Abounding Landscape

The National Road came through Brownsville long before the plows did, and in January it still runs the same line down the hill toward the Monongahela. Abounding Landscape works those winter mornings, when the river throws fog up the slope and every driveway on the grade needs opening before the first car tries it. Snow plowing here is a matter of gravity as much as accumulation — a hillside apron pushed wide, salt laid where the ice will want to form, walks scraped down to the brick. There is something plain and good in the black stripe of pavement left behind, still steaming a little in the cold. The work is done, and the town gets on with its day.