Road Trip – My Weekly Poem 2/14/2022

There is no future or past.
There is only the present moment.
Two hands on the steering wheel,
I stare out the windshield,
teetering between where I was
and where I am going.
Thinking of items left behind
or maybe, just well packed.
As the music plays,
my mind wonders into landscapes ahead,
both seen and unseen,
real and unreal.
Everything is a dream
until it touches you on the nose.
I slowly pass a mangled scene,
stunned people talking to stoic uniforms,
bent cars betraying the impact of past actions
as sunlight glints off shattered glass.
I’m overwhelmed with a sense of dread
that my dreams too, can be shattered in an instant.

This poem was posted for the previous week’s poetry prompt, Paired Opposites. A good long road trip helps me get in the present moment but it’s an in and out experience at best.