29 April 2011

NaPoWriMo 29 ~ driving anxiety

A big snow should pass through later today. I'll likely skip the drive and figure something else out. When I'm a passenger, I love driving through snow, but when I'm a driver my anxiety is bigger than I am.
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Would you like some cheese with your whine?

I can’t go driving in the snow
white knuckling it down highway 87
working muscles into knots
It’s April 29th.
April 29th!
Why is it snowing anyway?
Why is the day I have to drive
100 miles across the state and back
the only day with snow this week?
A 90% chance blowing across that two lane
highway stretching through high plains
dotted with missile silos
and military convoys
dotted with small towns
with at least two bars each
dotted with livestock, deer and antelope
dotted with the trail my anxiety leaves
in its wake.

See, now I go and start talking about wakes,
and you wonder why I worry?

10 comments:

Mary said...

Brenda, driving in snow scares ME too. I don't enjoy it when someone else is driving either, but it is better than if I have to drive. You're right...April 29, for pity sake! Spring, where are you?

Stan Ski said...

Driving in the snow would do my shed in too...

Marianne said...

I've lived in Minnesota all my life and we have our share of snow and white knuckle driving days. Now I drive a Jeep and I am [almost] fearless! "Small towns with at least two bars each" - so true!

flaubert said...

I haven't driven in the snow in many years and I don't miss it. You have captured the anxiety quite well in this piece, Brenda.

Pamela

brenda w said...

~Mary, I'm in Montana. The snow came most of the morning, now it's raining in sheets. I stayed put.
~Stan, I'm a self admitted driving wimp.
~Marianne, Small town bars for folks who live in the boondocks. They can be interesting places!
~Pamela, My anxiety is huge for driving. I obsessively check the Montana Department of Transportation Road Report Map. :)

Mr. Walker said...

I miss the snow, but then I never had to drive in it; we moved to California from Indiana just before I turned ten. I like the voice in this poem; it's very clear in my mind's ear.

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a small Midwest town (400 people) with two bars...your words brought vivid memories to mind! ...though I didn't mind driving in the snow. Now that I'm in Texas, I kinda miss it, actually (...though not on April 29th!)

Nicely written!

Gloria said...

Snow? Seriously??? Jeeze! I'd definitely be having some whine!! Loved this! (...and I thought the weather was bad in Pennsylvania)

Anonymous said...

A "dotty" poem. Hope you arrive at the end of NaPoWriMo safely!

Amy
http://sharplittlepencil.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/day-29-blast-of-poems/

Anonymous said...

Life is scary but you don't expect that kind of scare in spring.