Image is a mashup of photos by Jaymantri @ pexels.com and Trinck @ pixabay.com. The imagery employs some amount of Gaussian blur combined with a zooming effect. Neither of the original photos is anywhere near 71st Sinaiyah.
splitting seconds
this is what a WTD moment
on 71st Sinaiyah at my 10:
10:00 AM looks like from
the driver’s seat:
narrow asphalt lanes
no longer than a mile
going and coming empty
but for the single file of sad cars
illegally parked along the curbs
— but only illegal for stray
traffic cops to say —
withering dull or glossy
under the desert sun on
either side of 10:09:58 AM,
twin solid yellow lines solemnly mark
separation at the middle of the world
promising a robust paradise
at the foreseeable future bend,
when from the corner of an eye
a red ocher car whips up to life:
an arabian horse that bolts
head-on to my 10:09:59 AM
to slice the yellow lines
that breath with me
like a gaussian asymmetry
of thunder flash that grips
the blood vessels to preach
a lesson on the oscillation
of a school of souls
from head to soles and back,
through gaps of teeth
through blinding sight
as one wonders at 10:10:01 AM
where all the air has gone.
© said sadain, jr. 2018
Notes:
WTD is a modest substitute for WTF as the poem is meant to be read by poetry lovers of all ages with no need for any elderly supervision.
You do not need to understand what a Gaussian function is to appreciate a Gaussian asymmetry. Just feel it stir up from within your core, warming your veins, and flowing into your poetry.
— ssj, 24 november 2018
Gorgeous!
Thank you, G! 🙂
My pleasure 🙂
am i following you that you are headed to the beach with tunnel vision and all of a sudden a red car pulls out in front of you?? this may be way off 🙂
hi, ms. jade. your take is pretty much what the story here is about, but it was more like a gaussian blur than a tunnel vision which clouded the moment, and the beach, i suppose, is paradise enough 😉 thank you 😊
thank you for the explanation, said. it’s not fun when you have to explain it, but it is appreciated (now i have to go look up gaussian blur!)
you are entirely welcome, lisa. a, looking up the gaussian, 😊 now that should be fun!
i went to a youtube video for photoshop and got the gist after a few minutes. hi tech poetry, what is this world coming to! 🙂
Speed in words – not easy! This is a great attempt to convey it, if you’ll forgive the pun …
Thank you, Dave. Well, as long as the conveyance and conveyor are safe, pun can be entirely forgiven 🙂
Well, it got me from A to B! 🙂
I found it a very powerful piece, Said, rushing forward, with the precise times adding to it, beautifully expressed, and I’m going to admit that I thought the final airless moment was time of death when the oncoming vehicle (or both high-speed vehicles) strayed across the line on a curve. Apparently this is where my thoughts go. Fantastic work.
Thanks, Steve. *Where the reader’s thoughts go* is actually what endows a poem its alluring or compelling (or whatever…) attraction, and that allows the reader to totally own that piece as well, regardless of what the poem-writer’s best, or worst (or even just mild) intentions were at the time of writing. Gaussian asymmetry at work, I guess?! 🙂
WTD… for a splitter of seconds there I thought I’d had a WTF moment!!
whatever, i hope you enjoyed the moment! 😅