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.