A man is steering a water tractor

in the breakdown lane, intruding

fifteen feet across the highway,

and now I see he’s a woman.

But I’m not feeling funny right now.

 

Metaphors are everywhere,

but today has been too long

and straight forward

for even the sad ones.

 

The windmills just turn.

The hills just are.

This tractor is just in my way.

 

I remember a Chinese proverb that states

someone with one disease to manage

is healthier than someone with none,

but we all have several diseases to manage,

don’t we?

 

I sit, unstartled and self-annoyed,

with a bent neck and a lazy eye,

past a prison. Past an army base.

 

 

Pumping gas, a couple debates

which letter from John says

what they need it to say and above them

the moon is full and right there

in the middle of the afternoon.

 

A billboard reads: ‘Choose Life’,

and pictures a baby, who is saying:

‘I could smile before I was born’.