Amid the Jersey Turnpike Whales

Two tractor trailers blow by fast
and drench my windows with their mist.

My hatchback's one slick dolphin here,
though small and gray among those whales.

The highway has become our sea
inhabited by sharks and eels

which weave between great waves of rain
and schools of luminescent cars

whose red and yellow spotlights glow
before the coral reef of trees.

Another trailer splashes through,
accompanied by pilot cars.

I eye my exit, nearly fishtail
flailing homeward one more time

in search of smoother waters yet,
no loggerheads, no snaring net,

a shallow couch, some songs that flow,
the lure of light and life I know,

just bubbles in my bath or glass,
as dreams, like ships I captain, pass.




Amid the Jersey Turnpike Whales © Copyright 2021, Robert J. Tiess.

View this poem at AllPoetry.com

Revised Feb. 9, 2022.

Trucking theme challenge prompt - link: https://allpoetry.com/contest/2795702-Trucking

Poem inspired by drives along rainy highways through the evening and observing how tractor trailers are like the "whales of the road."

Interestingly enough, this also relates with Beowulf's famous kenning
(a figure of speech; metaphor; definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenning )
of the "whale-road."
Submitted: January 4, 2022









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