Right foot pressed to the accelerator
racing ahead of every car
in your vicinity
to slide into the left lane
and watch the following cars
through your rear-view mirror
honk and scream alone in vain

There’s a wayward shift in speed
followed by an anxious whip
of a commuter’s head to assure himself
that his wagon will clear
the space between two cars to his left
that come and go sporadically
driving quicker as the distant merge begins to appear

So when that day rolls around
when you find yourself reading bumpers
keeping a tenacious grip on that steering wheel
racing alongside silhouettes of commuters
each determined to be the first one
to merge into to left lane
and set the speed for following *******.