Retribution

 Seeing the parked lines of traffic on the interstate,

 steering my car to merge from the overpass above,

 I did not imagine it was a miles-long metal serpent.

 Or, a car-era metaphor for life and the roads we take.

 Nor, all climate-change-damned sluiced here to perdition.

 Instead, I recognized it for what it must surely be:

 my punishment for not starting at an earlier, better time.