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Hello everyone!  I've been on a very busy trip home to Birmingham, but it's good to be back and catching up on everyone's poetry.  I'll try to leave some more detailed comments shortly—everything is amazing!  For now, here's a poem I wrote over the break after a vacation to Chattanooga reminded me of something I saw on past trips north.  Hope to see you at Dr. Java's!

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Runaway


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On Appalachian highways I have seen
ramps of sand built up like exits
leading to nothing.  On the downside of hills
brakes break and semis flying
down mountains like bats into Hell
have little say in physics
and where it lands them.
They take what they can get:
a choice, a change in vector.
Screeching radials chewing up and spitting out
and digging in must feel like redemption,
baptism in a spray of soil, deliverance
to a blessed resting state.

Posted by Meagan M. on May 25, 2008
Tags: Uncategorized

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Total comments on this page: 7

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Sue walker on whole page :

Good to read your poetry again Meagan and to see you at Dr. Java’s. In traveling, I have often noted the “Runaway” notices — and you’ve done an excellent job of making this “event” a poem.

As usual, it’s good to see your unique way of interrelating things.

SBW

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May 25, 2008 5:41 pm
Nathan on paragraph 3:

I really like that the semis only “take what they can get.” Under normal conditions on flat highways these beats can make their own way if they really wanted to and run over normal traffic, it’s an interesting reversal. I noticed some of these on my trip earlier this summer. Great poem.

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May 27, 2008 12:12 am
Vivian on paragraph 3:

Meagan, good to read your poetry again. I like “ramps of sand …leading to nothing.” The runaway ramps in hill country have always fascinated me, too, some with tell-tale tracks of actual use.

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May 28, 2008 3:44 pm
Rini on whole page :

I really like the title of this because, until you get to the brakes, it could be about a runaway child. So I had a surprise.

I especially like the language at the end - the chewing, spitting, digging of the tires - great imagery!

Rini

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June 6, 2008 2:50 pm
alexis on paragraph 3:

the action in this poem is incredible, i feel restles reading it (in a good way)! again, i love the last 2 lines: baptism/deliverance…

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June 19, 2008 5:18 pm
alexis on paragraph 3:

oops–meant to write “restless”

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June 19, 2008 8:41 pm
mbcleverdon on whole page :

I like the imagery and use of special language relating to the machinery of trucks (vectors, radials–I’d like to see more of those terms as they point to the danger inherent in running away. .

mbcleverdon

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August 15, 2008 11:50 am
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