The Great Race

I had to laugh the other day

when driving down 

a windy mountain road,

I saw an expensive sports car

stuck in traffic

behind an electric hybrid

only slightly bigger than a bread box

(though I don't recall 

ever seeing a real bread box),

probably being driven 

by a tourist with his wife holding a map

(though I don't remember 

the last time I saw a paper map),

or perhaps a middle-aged hippie 

trying to reduce their carbon footprint

(though I've never seen 

a carbon footprint, big or small).

We've sent men 

from the earth to the moon

in a great race to leave 

real footprints in the sand 

of a galactic dessert,

we've developed great machines

and sent them into space

so we can instantly send

pictures of the new baby

from New York to Hong Kong,

but in this age 

of technological wonderment,

it just goes to show

we are still only as fast

as the slowest guy

on your way down the mountain.

Ken Owen  Van Niddy Press  January 2014