.................................
stalled car
.................................

everyone is in a rush and I
rush down the road along with them until
the car stops just like that
and all the other rushing cars
pass quickly while I glide and stretch and float
in simple metal, quietly coast, no engine left

just managing to reach a decent spot
what lucky unluck, and I start to walk
strange space, so slow, feels almost magnified
as each small detail of the noisy road
sticks out, and black eyed susans wave
grasshoppers jump beside my feet away
and a grey toad
no other human on this road
just wheels of every sort and roaring black

I don't know what to do
whatever mattered, doesn't matter, can't be helped
there is just me and earth and passing cars
and I'm off track
expecting time will catch me up again
but now, as I look back
no sign of me, the car left in its spot
all the connections broken and my heart
shaking this web, remaking lines from scratch
and taking off, a new line moving out

.................................
Susan R. Gilbert
.................................

 
Copyright © Susan R. Gilbert
October 1996

...a poem in this room by Troy Johnson...
the small moments of your face hover
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