2:15 p.m. Happy Easter! It’s raining a bit here, and I just got back in town after visiting my son, so I thought I’d write a poem about driving.

Haiku seems to lend itself to that, so here goes:

driving down the road
windshield covered with pollen
wipers don't work well

raindrops spread yellow
in spatters across the glass
i look into past

mistakes that haunt me
a life survived recklessly
weaving through the lanes

hard to spot flowers
growing on the road's shoulder
through yellow splotches

so i pull over
i breathe and seek clarity
and wipe the slate clean

2:28 p.m. I had to stop and think a little along the way, but I believe this captured that feeling I had as I drove today, my mind dwelling too long on past mistakes and missteps. It’s easy to get mired down in guilt.

Quick re-write and title:

driving down the road
windshield covered with pollen
wipers don't work well

raindrops spread yellow
in spatters across the glass
i look into past

mistakes that haunt me
a life survived recklessly
weaving through the lanes

hard-to-spot flowers
flourish on the road's shoulder
through yellow splotches

so i pull over
i breathe and seek clarity—
wipe the window clean

2:35 p.m. What do you think? I didn’t want to go into too much detail, but I did get sort of mired down and it felt like pollen on the windshield.