Road Sign  


    this is how we say hello, one index finger
    raised from the steering wheel as we pass  
    on these narrow roads tight enough to graze
    each other’s fenders if we’re not vigilant

    our other fingers stay furled to the wheel
    to guide us around the road-kill curves,
    the single finger released to mark the instant
    of our common crawl over shared ground

    this one finger the only voice we can afford,
    but ample speech for the moment, briefly
    perpendicular, as if we are checking wind
    direction in the truck cab, pointing out the

    shortest route to paradise, or tallying the
    count—of fish caught on a bad day, of deer
    taken during muzzleloader season, of the
    chances we yet have to get it right

                                                            __________

                      "Road Sign" appeared in volume 6.1 of Stickman Review.


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