World Straddling

World Straddling

TDOT is expanding the I-24 I-75 split

from Chattanooga to Atlanta, an extra lane 

each way, and Gracie and I too

have our afternoon say constructing

possible directions we could bear 

to ease our daily commute through

the world. We love this little plot of land

in rural Georgia, but there are times 

we’d be happy to exchange some hey deer 

for hey there’s as neighbors nose 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 to weigh

in the scales, the troubling question

of why we can't be comfortable

in the long afternoon silence

of ourselves, Emmie’s excitement 

to begin preschool at the baptist church

we don’t attend but would gladly be dunked

in the honey dripping from that twang. 

More state and property taxes 

here, less room to breathe there, 

and we could sell the place and dip

or I could cough up the two grand

to get my name in the ring,

take my stand, and begin the campaign

for the Walker County District Four

commission seat. I’m just saying, 

what we don’t need in this long interstate 

is a few more lanes to drift between.