Jim Tilley

All Of It, All The Way, All The Time

Driving back home from my step-son’s in-laws’
wooded retreat in the Catskill Mountains
after a fine dinner with friends and family,
I followed his directions for a rural route
I’d never traveled and soon found myself
on a winding descent with sweeping S-turns
difficult on a dark night to make out clearly,
having to continually flick down my brights
while turning the wheel as oncoming cars
approached. But it was the bullying F-150
pickup trucks following me, traveling above
the speed limit and tailgating, that turned this
journey from hair-raising to life-threatening
with no place to pull off the road and let
the pursuers go by, forever hoping they might,
all of it coming to a head at a 90º right turn
marked 5 mph that I had to take at 15 mph
and swing fully into the opposing lane,
praying that no other vehicles would be there.
The two trucks, virtually glued together, finally
turned off, undoubtedly hooting all the way.
As soon as I could, I stopped in the parking lot
of a village restaurant, put my head down
on the wheel, realized that for too many of us,
this is what daily existence has become—
the descent, the S-turns, the speed, the bullying—
no longer just story, not solely metaphor.
Out of control, all of it, all the way, all the time.

 

Jim Tilley has published four full-length collections of poetry and a novel with Red Hen Press. His short memoir, The Elegant Solution, was published as a Ploughshares Solo. Five of his poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His most recent poetry collection, Ripples in the Fabric of the Universe: New & Selected Poems, was published in June 2024. His forthcoming collection, When Godot Arrived, will be published in the fall of 2026.