Travel Advisory- Dec 27 2022

 

Travel Advisory

Dec 27 2022

Nosing onto the shoulder

and buried in feet of snow

the car was cold and dark and lifeless

abandoned in the storm.

With the highway whited-out

unplowed

and no traffic for hours

no help would come;

first responders

either stuck themselves

or overwhelmed by calls.

The quiet

on such a busy highway

was unnerving

unnatural.

The sound of wind,

cold hard snow

pelting the ground.

He'd been warned;

a weather advisory

winter storm.

But, like the rest of the stranded cars

had gone anyway.

Because contained

in the warm bright interior

of that capable machine

he felt at ease,

surrounded by steel and glass

felt safe.

And insulated from nature

and forces beyond his control

felt exempt;

the hubris of modern technology,

the naïveté

of urban sophisticates

who spend their lives indoors.

Stylish shoes.

Fashionable jacket.

No mitts, no hat.

And how easily blinding snow

can disoriented a man.

Footsteps

stumbling off the road

through the drifts and underbrush,

staggering this way and that

like a drunk on a bender.

Until they trail off

into dark dense woods.

Footsteps

going nowhere,

quickly filling with snow.