There's something mystical about a long empty road.
The highway sign
drank asphalt
one last time
then quietly
vanished some day
we weren't looking
For context:
for thirteen years
it pointed exits
led cars with
no direction
no mind
frail steel contorting
cold winds flowing
it felt nothing
so it left
left a trail
of green paint
following its escape
like an old
rubber snake skin
fast, without warning
from one road to the next
historians said it
had no direction
no mind
had just followed
the waiting promise
of the horizon.
Thoughts
Being on a highway when not in a car is a unique experience. I remember times when my family had to pull over on a road trip, and getting out of the safety of the vehicle and onto the road, just meters away from deafeningly loud, speeding cars, was chaotic and scary. The highway felt like a different planet without a car; It was designed by humans, not for human bodies. I personified these ideas into a solitary, mystical highway sign, also an outsider guiding the creatures of the freeway. Its "frail steel contorting" highlights the discomfort of its situation to the reader. Yet it does not feel anything.
Another idea was wanted to convey was the search for purpose. As a high schooler, the monotony of my days is both a comfort and a cage I know I will escape when my education is over. But I wonder, despite the financial and social freedom of adulthood, if I will still feel meaningless? When this question enters the mind of this highway sign with "no direction/no mind" it takes control of its own destiny with a daring, hopeful escape. But to us, in this real world, is an escape possible?
-Tomatobean
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