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I saw half your face on the freeway.
I mean, in a car, not like roadkill (ew).
I saw half your face next to me (hey!),
and the other half hidden from view.
I liked half your face, so I wondered,
“Does the other side look just the same?
Or is half your mouth smiling,
while the left side is squinting
at the sun slicing down on your lane?”
I watched, glimpse-and-glance, with my left eye,
keeping most of my right on the bumper ahead.
But I perked up when we slowed,
every jam in the road,
(“Keep your coool, man...”) when the tail-lights flashed red.
I passed a hundred half-faces this weekend.
All looking the same way, all going, all gone.
And I passed yours as well;
not much more to tell,
just to wonder as I walk up the lawn:
“Did you park by a hydrant, in a driveway,
down a ramp, through a gray steel maze?
Where and why did you go?”
Have a lawn? I don't know
(And that traffic line stretched on for days).
I'll eat dinner alone by the ant tree.
I'll look up (sky like windshield glass).
I'll peek under my fried egg, my plate,
And my chair, like, “my god! every side has a back.”
The collage at the top of this poem caught me first. It looks supernatural or ghostly, like something the Ghost Busters would vacuum out of the sky. After reading the poem, I see that it’s not a phantom but a reflection of someone’s face from a car window, which in a way, as the poem explores, really is no different from a phantom. The idea of watching someone and wondering about their life story, their emotions, their past, and their future really resonated with me because I do the same thing. It’s fun to make up stories in your head about the people you pass even though the odds of being right are next to none.
ReplyDeleteI love when poems have a rhyme scheme, and this one made me feel as though I was bouncing along a road with the person in the car, hitting the occasional pothole at a surprising word, slowing down in traffic as the lines grew longer, and speeding along the freeway through the shorter stanzas. The switch from five to four lines at the end pulled me to a stop and made me consider the meaning behind the change, and it felt as though the person had arrived home and left their car. I liked that the poem also started with a four line stanza; they feel like bookends to the speaker’s internal journey.
From further examination of the collage, I then noticed the dictionary definitions hidden within the image. I love words, and the meaning behind the choices is evident and impactful. Inexorable, anonymous, fulfilling. They contradict each other yet explain the internal conflict of the speaker, and the reader feels the same questions as they study the art.
ReplyDeleteThis poem really stuck out to me because it reminds me of feelings that I have experienced before. I was stuck in traffic and started thinking about the fact that every single car is holding someone else. Someone who has their own interests, beliefs, relationships, and dreams. When you contemplate this and follow these thoughts deeper, it becomes almost daunting. There are so many people on a highway going to so many different places that it is safe to assume you will never see any of them again. Even if you did see them again, neither of you would ever know because you only saw each other for one fleeting moment while driving next to each other. The world is so absurd in this sense. There is such an inconceivably high number of people on earth who we are never ever going to personally meet or learn about. But it is the nature of human beings to help each other out and humanize each other. In this poem, the speaker wonders about what the person he sees does after they have driven away. This is natural for human beings. We view each other as equals, members of the same tribe, so when we see someone we don’t know, we make up stories and try to see the human side of each other. It’s almost as if we subconsciously wish we knew them so we make believe that we do. Or maybe the sheer number of people on earth is so incomprehensible and the freeway is a representation of the idea that everyone on earth is working on their own goals/traveling to their own destinations.
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ReplyDeleteThis poem resonated with me personally because of the way it explores the feeling I am sure most people have when they realize or recall that behind the face of every stranger there lies a whole person with their own life and story, but one that you will likely never know. I realized this for the first time in elementary school, but no matter how many times the concept resurfaces in my mind it never seems to get any less fascinating or overwhelming. The image that accompanies this poem I think further emphasizes the emotions that wash over you when this thought comes to mind as well as emphasizes why a freeway is the perfect place to use as a backdrop to explain this feeling. The one image of a person's eyes feels strangely personal, yet not, since you can't see the rest of the face. You see them, yet you hardly know anything about them, and there is in fact more that you will never uncover. The crowded freeway and the words plastered across it do a fantastic job of communicating the overwhelming understanding that there is a person like this in every vehicle, all around you, all with so many stories that you shall never get to hear. The use of the freeway itself I think is compelling since (outside of LA dead-end traffic) cars often speed on by you, or you by them. You see a passing driver's face for just a moment, your paths cross at that one point, and then they drive off without giving you any more information, leaving you pondering their fate. I personally think this feeling can be extended even past strangers, towards acquaintances or even friends. The last line mentions that everything has a back, and I think this applies to all people, even those you think you know really well. Chances are there is something that you don't get to see, and will never get to see. It is not necessarily a bad thing, just something interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely relatable poem that depicts the empathy that humans inherently feel for one another. I can definitely empathize with this idea and have had the same realization while I was stuck in traffic on my way to school. I remember looking at the car next to me and seeing a man screaming on the phone at 8:00am. It was crazy to me that someone could have so much to worry about that early in the morning, but then I remember how different everyone’s lives truly are. That man could have been an uber driver and just spent the whole night driving people around, there is no way to tell. This poem reminded me how everyone has sides to them that they will never show to others. This “backside” is usually not considered as pretty or acceptable as the front, so humans hide their flaws to prevent social isolation. The things that we don’t know about people, we let our imaginations makeup and fill in the gaps. I thought the rhetorical questions the speaker asked demonstrated that perfectly. The first two stanzas make me wonder what the speaker would have said to the person if they rolled down their window and tried to strike up a conversation. I have had conversations in traffic a few times with strangers about the music playing from one of our cars. It is a very natural response to talk to others that share the same interests, without knowing them first. I also wonder what the person with a viewable half face would say if that happened. The collage was very eye-catching and adds to the imagery of the poem perfectly. The eye and nose is the most noticeable feature when seeing a person in traffic. When the traffic is bumper to bumper, (like the picture shows) it is easy to see the faces next to you and wonder who that person really is and what brings them to the road at the same time and place as you.
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