Limited Visibility

This past week I woke up to fog as dense as I've ever witnessed. Not only was the street in front of my windows invisible, the lawn, itself, had disappeared.

At seven in the morning on a workday, it was eerily quiet on this busy thoroughfare because of the lack of traffic. I counted myself lucky not to have to contend with such dismal driving conditions. And highway travel? The same set of problems only on speed.



Limited Visibility


Wind turbines, pale giants swallowed
by ghost clouds, spin layered vapor
floating over the plains.

Warning signs and raised crossbars
prepared to halt highway traffic
loom and recede like prairie phantoms.

Drifting snow and blizzards trigger
extended arms/alarms, but diaphanous fog,
famous for pileups, holds no leverage.

                              *

Uninvited passengers,
a throbbing headache and white knuckles,
slide in for the ride.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor