101 Fwy Poem at 20mph

101 fwy over 405 any day
To stay on her, I’ll go far, far out of my way.

I am the link between
the stone on my grandfather’s grave
and the coyotes erupting in celebration of killed prey,
just as the clouds part over Mt. Sinai (Burbank) in rare midday display

I am the Dr. Sally Ride Adopt-a-Highway sign
on the ancestral Hollywood Freeway.
I am the suspicion that Dr. Sally Ride
isn’t a real name,
but a joke of interstate entendre,
closed to me.

Going a cool 20mph,
music just right,
Ukrainian funeral procession in my rearview eyeline,
and I,
the only smiling smokers for miles,
and lanes upon lanes and I will never die
Siri add the emoji for evil eye