I don’t remember where I saw the phrase ‘immobile commuters’, but it made me think of I-5 in Seattle…

Immobile commuters
bedevil us all—
though they didn’t start out that way

Somebody thought they could make it
through that intersection
at the end of the offramp

They were wrong

Now they block traffic all ways
one of those lines creeps up the offramp
spilling onto the freeway

It’s one of those laws of physics
that two objects cannot occupy the same space
at the same time

So, five miles and fifteen minutes away
freeway traffic slows to a crawl
then comes to a halt

as unsuspecting motorists
just off work
get on the interstate

joining the clot now forming
in the urban arterial
This is how the city will die

clutching its throat
slumping in place
amidst the invisible haze

(13 July 2016)