Trucks… trucks… trucks… trucks
This endless parade of trucks
Obediently in line in that rightfully legal lane.
We whiz by toward Tirol’s icy peaks.
German, Austrian, Danish, French, Italian
Too fast for reading large labels and websites.com.
In passing, the illusion of relativity appears:
Trucks slide backwards as when back home,
My commuter train moves faster ahead
Leaving behind impatient passengers
Receding on the next track.
What cargo moves north within these mammoth
Petrol-pushed tractor-trailers
Some with double-Anhangers adding extra kilos?
What secrets hide inside the speeding boxes?
Today’s commerce mostly moves on wheels
Crawling or carooming over concrete ribbons
Autobahn autostrada turnpike networks
Criss-crossing continents connecting nations
Bridging languages customs patterns habits.
Freight flies fast from there to here overnight.
Other cargo contained in Leviathan ships
Still floats port to port, sea to shining sea.
How did today’s breakfast get to my table,
This writing machine, my shoes, my music?
What memories from exotic sites keep creeping
Into my being, nibbling at my subconscious
Flavored with some foreign essence of hope or pain?
Commerce comes to me as more than Business 101
It connects with survival dreams
Yet today again I am reminded: it is not free!
It comes with a price.
We pay with Euros or Yen or dollars.
The coming crowd of great grandchildren
May bear the true cost beyond currency.
Perhaps today’s consciences deserve at least
The psychic burden.
