World Straddling

World Straddling

TDOT is expanding the I-24/75 split

from Chattanooga to Atlanta, an extra lane 

each way, and Gracie and I too

tax ourselves of an afternoon constructing

possible directions our lives could merge 

to ease our daily commute through

the world. We love our rural plot

this side of the state line, but there are times 

we’d be happy to exchange some deer 

for neighbors nosing by 

with strollers, chatting loose and free 

as all the free money Tennessee is rolling out 

to attend private school, like the one 

at which I teach and where our kids 

will likely be. But then, of course, 

there’s the peach trees we planted

beginning to bear, Emmie’s excitement 

to begin preschool at the First Baptist Church

we don’t attend but would gladly be dunked

in the honey dripping from that twang,

and then—that troubling pit in the middle—

the question of why we can't be comfortable

in the dragging afternoon silence

of ourselves. More state and property

taxes here, less room to breathe there, 

and we could sell the place and dip

or just as easily cough up the two grand

to get my name on the ballot, take our stand,

and begin my pipe-dream campaign

for the Walker County District Four

commission seat. I just mean that 

what none of us need in this long interstate 

is a few more lanes to drift between.