Rumble Strips
They run alongside you
No faster and no slower
Though they are nothing
More than corrugations
Pressed into the asphalt
When it was still molten
Yet they care for you
Like all those inanimate things
We invent and then forget
Like the rails that kept you
From tumbling out
Of the top bunk
If you drift off
To sleep and off the road
They will suddenly turn
From noun into verb
Rumble strip rumbling
Shaking you awake
So that the loved one
Who slept through
The phone vibrating
By the bedside
Never has to be