Poem a Day December #3

Another one inspired by BC’s December 1 Poetry Broadcast....this one at the 11:22 mark. Ain’t it great when the simplest sentences shoot creative flares into the void of the mind’s night sky?! View the whole video here.

What is Life but Sidetracking?

—Billy Collins

I suppose he’s right, my own life

having veered so far off course

it’s amazing I’m still in the race.

And I like the image of all these

empty roadways, devoid of the tire marks

of life’s-plan-fulfilled, the diners all closed,

the billboards only faintly lit by flickering

floodlights, not saying anything, just

white paper and tattered black framing.

I imagine a little town in the middle

named Crisis, its only inhabitant

the white bearded mayor who walks

with a limp and mumbles to himself

as he rises from his green velour

barcalounger to pull aside the curtains,

mistakenly thinking he’s heard the tires

of a car hissing along the wet pavement

outside. And I suppose there is a finish line

at the end of these long, vacant roads

where the bleachers all remain empty and

the tape blows uselessly in the harsh winter wind.