Poem: Flip Side

 

Flip Side

 

a sacred plant, moonflower, 

ignored in sand under a freeway.

on the flip side, a dozen cars a second,

coursing castle-thick ramparts of concrete.

 

down below, a stream.

with horseshoe-embroidered U's among its trickles. 

a hummingbird lazes,

so fast it seems to waddle in the air,

grazing, as it does, the droop of a castor-bean.

 

up above, calamitous steel

hurtles, rumbles and clatters by. 

but even the huge semi-trucks can’t yank

the flip side’s lack of chains.

 

cave swallows

loop prim through the gnatty air,

their clay nests nestled in the underbelly of the ramparts.

a lizard tilts its head up, out of its lack-of-yoke,

and skirts away.

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1/30/24 ... mods

9/22 "plant" replaces "flower"

9/14  fixed typo

This poem is inspired by a freeway overpass and what's below it, off Foothill Blvd in Lake View Terrace, CA