Freshening Up

Freshening Up

They put the new road
right on top of the old one,

spill blacktop on the street
and roll it smooth as if it

were paint, shiny, black.
Trouble is, in places we

can see the previous lane
markers, blacked out but

slightly raised from the road
like goosebumps or hives.

The fresh white paint insists
we drive between its lines,

but the way we used to drive
along this street still reaches

out to guide us. The road
can erase only so much of

itself. Even the newest batch
of drivers will notice how uneven

the road’s skin is, as their cars
push into the new road and

the roads living beneath it,
blacktop, brick, and dirt.