His father was a trucker who'd be gone away for weeks. And him the little mucker with the rosy morning cheeks, And a second-hand bike with a wobbly old tire, Which he's peddle on for miles until his butt caught fire.



18 WHEELS POEMS THAT MOVE is a collection of 21 poems that evoke the distances and dissonances of our mobile world. The poems explore how our vehicles shape our relationships, from the strollers we rode in as infants, to our first tryke, our bikes, the family car, the trains and planes that speed the pace of life; and at last, the wheel chair that rolls us to the Exit. Brilliantly illustrated by artist Alana Kapell, these poems arise out of water and earth, and they grow toward the light, and the soaring visions of our last years, in which we come to accept the natural round of life and death. Written in my seventh decade, this is poetry full of movement and wonderment, endings and beginnings.



The loudspeakers announce our flights. We are searched and cleared for imminent departure. It's coming to us all, this last embrace And letting go of everything we were. A leap of engines and the dark earth falls away; Bright sky catches us.

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