High Beams

Please turn down those high beams and let’s share this road
This is the lane that I have chosen tonight
This speed at which I am traveling at makes me feel the most comfortable
Why do you have to go and get so mad?

Please turn off those high beams and let’s travel this road together
Don’t guide me to places I don’t want to go
I am comfortable here and at this pace
Why do you have to go and get so mad?

Please turn down those high beams and let’s not go so fast 
I don’t understand why there needs to be such a rush
This lane isn’t wide enough for you to get everything you want all at once anyway 
Why do you have to go and get so mad?

Turn down those high beams and let’s travel at an agreed upon speed
Don’t disregard me simply because I’m going too slowly for you
don’t push me towards something that makes me feel uncomfortable
Why do you have to go and get so mad?

I like the idea associated with this poem. I'm not sure how it turned out though. The parallel was certainly there. The goal was to make the reader think it's about a driver on a two-lane road who wants to go faster than the person in front of him but has no way to get around him so he flicks his high beams angrily, hoping that the slower car will either go faster or pull over so the driver can go by. But this poem isn't about driving at all.

Instead, it's about two people in the relationship, one more experienced than the other. The experienced one is trying to take things to the next level much more quickly than the less experienced person is. The less experienced person is telling the more experienced person that she likes him, but what's to go at a pace that she's comfortable with and not at the race car pace that he seems to be pushing towards. She doesn't understand why he gets so upset when she asks him to go slower.

Written in 2013

Copyright, The Poetry of Bryan Buser