Family Road Trip

/ stephanielharper

Family Road Trip

Family Road Trip

As we cross from Idaho into Utah,
the speed limit increases to 80 MPH,
& the evening empties
itself of the day’s summer ire,
letting it bubble on the horizon,
like the burgeonings that grace
the faces of teenagers just emerged
from backseat oblivion

to find themselves
metamorphosed from neophytes
into sleek, lanky-limbed
molehill-monumentalization
experts overnight.

Somewhere between the relative
metropolises of Ogden & Salt Lake City,
we breeze past a little town
that sprouted in the morning
shadow of a mountain,
& is now
consummating its time-dilated version
of a storm-cloud’s single day & night;

& I think how this place must be
the torpor of teenagers incarnate—
tucked in its little bed, & brimming
with confoundedness—

mustering the elements
it will tower into a thing of splendor.

STEPHANIE L. HARPER

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12 thoughts on “Family Road Trip”

  2. You’ve triggered flashbacks to a 1992 road trip with my two then-teens – applause for your keen wording: burgeonings that grace / the faces of teenagers just emerged / from backseat oblivion. In our case, we were driving the coast between San Francisco and British Columbia. We all learned a lot about the West Coast, and about each other! What on earth they were doing mentally between stops remains a mystery … oblivion a great tag!
    Love your description of the little town in the shadow of a mountain … and the phenomenal image of balanced rock – as though the cloud behind it has paused in place to brace the rock should it start to tumble.

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