Fugio
Thoughts While Driving
By: Arnie Reisman - Oct 08, 2014
FUGIO
I’m driving along minding my business
Up ahead a sign says “Evacuation Route”
I blink
It could all be over in one blink
I’m driving along minding my business
When it occurs to me
Minding my business is a distraction
Minding my business is not minding other people,
Objects outside my car,
Outside my control
Now all I’m thinking about is evacuating
I’m driving along and thinking
Will this route lead to a bomb shelter --
Or a bathroom?
Up ahead a sign says “Rest Area”
How is that possible?
If there’s any planned order to these signs,
Shouldn’t I keep my mind on evacuation?
Shouldn’t I keep time on my side?
Then again, perhaps in this case,
A rest area is just a rest room with foliage.
I’m driving along trying to distract myself
From being distracted
When I hug the curve of a soft shoulder
And the next sign offers a Freudian caution –
“Beware – Hidden Drives”
I blink again
My car stays steady
It commits to the lane
My mind drifts
In 1787 Ben Franklin
In a horse-drawn carriage,
Driving and minding along,
Came up with the design
For the first US penny.
His motto, engraved on it,
Was “Mind Your Business”
He also added “Fugio” (I flee)
But coupled with the motto,
All the colonists knew it meant,
Taken together,
“Time flies. Do your work.”
In short: Life – get on with it.
Then the drift lifts
I’m driving along,
Minding my business,
Getting on with it
When it occurs to me
There are no more signs
For the “Evacuation Route”.
Did I blink?
Has it all ended?
Fugio
--Arnie Reisman