Fast go, fast show, <br />with a motor-horse hum <br />and a savage cat roar, <br />the world is a <br />serpentine swerve. <br /> <br />Muffled music with <br />thumping, bumping bass <br />fools the listener with its <br />accidental genius. <br /> <br />Turn it up loud, bigger <br />than the rush of <br />highway wind, so <br />that freedom fills <br />the seats and hushes <br />the eighteen-wheeler <br />that grumbles to the right. <br /> <br />Red spatters on the pavement <br />turn the head and then the stomach. <br />The eyes focus sharp <br />on broken yellow lines, <br />steering clear of matted fur <br />and mans' vainglorious pursuits. <br /> <br />In every whizzing, left-lane car is <br />a baseball cap or heavy-browed scowl. <br />In the right lane is white hair <br />or white knuckles, or both, <br />close to the top of the wheel. <br />There’s no one in the middle. <br /> <br />Near the roadside gravel, <br />past the ditches and the <br />jagged, tattooed asphalt, <br />are the crosses and faded <br />flowers, wearing banged-up <br />names that no one slows to see. <br />The rubberneckers have <br />long since passed the wreckage, <br />forgetting what twisted metal <br />looks like or the scent of spurting <br />fuel. <br /> <br />The seat is somehow numbing, <br />leaving nothing below the waist, <br />and there’s always a ruptured tire <br />by the side of the road. <br /> <br />We pass the defeated traveler, <br />averting our eyes, <br />so he won’t be there. <br />There’s no want for delay <br />or human complications. <br />The thumb of a wayfarer has <br />the makings of a weapon. <br />Be glad that our tires are <br />doughnut plump, and <br />the tank is filled past half. <br />Drive, drive, drive, and <br />skid from the transient hitch! <br /> <br />The mirror reflects nothing <br />but the slight glow of red, <br />and the occasional <br />headlight gleam <br />of others who <br />ride the snake. <br /> <br />A destination <br />is on the horizon, <br />as long as we keep driving.<br /><br />Tara Teeling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/head-trip/
