sonora2sonoma

Could there be, I wonder

a correlation

between

the number of potholes

in a city’s streets

and the diameter of the of voids

in the heads of the public servants

who, for whatever reason,

fail to envision

infrastructure maintenance

as falling under their purview?

Driving down the streets

of my little town, these days

is an exercise in attention . . .

Passing by pits

Avoiding apertures

Dodging depressions

Sailing by spaces

Giving the slip to gaps

Circumventing craters

Eluding excavations

Ducking ditches

Cruising around cavities

Rimming ruts

A bitumenous boulevard slalom course,

a discipline of awareness,

immediacy and presence

A real-life drivers test

whose reward is fewer wheel alignment problems

at the pain of a ruptured suspension system

for those who miss the cues.

Rocky roads, so much so

they once produced a pothole vigilante

who ran about town

with a can of spray paint

circling the cratered depressions

in orange.

Rocky roads, so persistent

they inspired a local business

to name an ice cream flavor after them.

I was once told,

in all earnestness,

by a well-meaning, civic-minded but confused person

that the reason

the streets of Petaluma

weren’t being maintained properly

was because

the city council members

were saving up funds

so they could patch all the streets

at once!

Maybe that person

should run for city council!

Tim Konrad

11 November 2015

Petaluma, CA