April 30 : The freeway lesson

Stefan looks back over his shoulder

to check the blind spot, just a split second

before changing lanes. But his gaze lingers

on the car in the next lane

or perhaps the trailing school of vehicles

that reminds him of shoals off the Aleutians

during World War II, when fish were abundant

and the Japanese fleet was in decline,

actually falling off a cliff face-first,

not like their automakers today,

struggling with industrial maturity and a strong yen,

like a man in a three-piece suit sitting alone

in a dark study with two fingers of Suntory whisky,

fascinated by the recalls and VW’s surge,

then wondering when the Dreamliner

will take to the skies again.