SACK OF TRAPS

when i think
i'm in the clear
and i'm just going
to dawdle through
a handful of days
without any
tragedy,
nasty self-reflections,
parenting traps
and the like,
i start seeing
the signs appearing
in my rear view mirror.

first,
there is some poor hipster
in a camry with one headlight
blaring into
my mirror.

then,
another car with one headlight
appears in the side window.

several others now
flash like
torches in my
rear view.

a big rig in comes
in the opposite lane
before me with one
Cyclops headlight.

and i get a bit
of the sweat in my pits,
blinking hard,
wiping my brow,
i look up into the mirror
for more one headlighters
and it's gone
as the rig finally swishes by.

all headlights
have turned to two
around me.

in my moment of
relief,
the phone in my pocket
begins to ring
as a shooting star
in the sky is really
a descending fire pit of
a plane tumbling towards
earth.

at this,
i jam on the
gas pedal,
hear my alarm wake me
and
rise to see what kind
of
headlights are going to
hit my
under dilated
eye balls
of morning.