If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Now

Big Frank thinks that bumper stickers can be poetic inspiration. Why not? Epigraphs are very popular these days. They are often quotations from well-known poets, philosophers, or popular songs. Why not bumper stickers - that's what Big Frank says.

You'd Be Home Now
-- Big Frank Dickinson

"If you lived here you'd be home now." ~ Bumper Sticker

Inside this car is a face, impassive and moving fast,
Flashing by you–
Solitary in his aluminum bubble;
Going somewhere unremarkable
That is reflected in the blah look that
This journey has evoked in his face.
Yes, this is a traveler, but the journey is so routine
That from the look on his face he
Could as well be walking down the hall at work
On the way to the restroom, the conference room, or to
His own drab workstation. Where is he really going?
To the grocery store to buy toilet paper, to church to buy
Redemption, or to meet someone who is impassively
Moving through space very fast to meet him.
No doubt, the composed face is being bathed in its
Own favorite music, warmed or cooled to the exact
Temperature selected, and perhaps communicating
Via phone or text with another impassive traveler who
Has entered also this pause of speed on rubber wheels
As he zips onward toward what comes next,
For it is what comes next that has set this person
Zipping along, wrapped in chosen noise, or . . .
Perhaps with the radio off bathed in thoughts – traffic
Meditation – silence of the many nows passing
By unnoticed while the many thens are watched.
You watch him pass you over and over and over again.
He watches you also . . . only in passing.
You do not wave or smile as you would if
You passed on horseback, or a bike.
Your windshield and his could as well be opaque;
You take no notice, and when you do and
You catch his eye you look away -
Quickly, almost like he had caught you
Peeking in his window at home, for
He is at home in his favorite wheeled lounger;
If you lived here you would be home now too.