710

who owns this freeway?
hell, who knows
a black stretch
of hardened
chemical waste
there’s a billboard on the right
a fifty foot mechanical heart
and man, the things beating
this freeway’s the artery
cut open
bleeding towards home
one red corpuscle after the other

I try to relate the whole experience
to myself,
explain my life
in one big
metaphor
but find I’m locked up in a gearbox in my head
and can’t relate to the tissues
that surround

the radio plays songs
about distant battles
Iraq and Jerusalem
I drum my hands on the wheel
but no matter
how hard I beat them
I can not feel that pain

traffic is backed up
red tail light stopped
it’s getting dark and deep
at least another forty-fife minutes
before I reach a bar
I look in the rearview
and see my face
the mask of a
Chinese Dragon

(c 1992) James Rosenquist