
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.