I
You’re alone & driving down
an unplowed highway near Hartford.
Cars plod by on either side.
Up ahead you spot one skidding
toward you at cartoon high speed.
You brace yourself for impact
but it barrels by & you catch it
in your rearview mirror spinning
& spinning & spinning & it is snowing
& dark & you keep going—
II
You are with your friend, Beth
driving to the West Haven Train Station,
chatting about her trip to Italy,
excited for a five-course Midtown lunch.
A Port-O- Potty slips off the truck
right in front of you
in the middle lane of I-91.
You both watch it slide politely
past a Honda & an Audi & a Tesla,
reach its final destination
in the right shoulder lane.
Marvel that no one had to break,
joke that this could have been pretty shitty,
that you clearly chose the comforting
corollary in the multiverse,
congratulate yourselves for defying the odds—