Accident on the poet's road

ACCIDENT: ROBERT FROST EXPRESSWAY

Ironic,

the traffic—

boisterous buses, truculent

trucks, cacophonous cars—

all tumbled together, scrunching

into the tip of an arrow

to pass by—ogling slowly—

the little Japanese

car and the Corvette

bashed together,

and their upwardly

mobile drivers

grimacing in

morning’s

heat and

fumes

on this road

more traveled.

And that!

Up there!

Was that an

avuncular poet’s

face sneering down

from the water-heavy

cumulus

over the city?

June 1987/2010

"Accident: Robert Frost Expressway" was first published in City Magic, 1987. It is a shaped poem, the visual form of which reflects its meaning.  I find it ironic that the author of "The Road Less Traveled" should have a Miami expressway named after him.  When I got tangled in a traffic jam one morning on that same expressway, the poem came to me--I began writing it on a notepad as I sat immersed in the conglomeration of vehicles.
 
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