If Twenty-Miles-Per-Hour Caused Cancer

If twenty-miles-per-hour and faster
were proven risk for cancer,
speed would be disease.
We would attend seminars on slowing down,
preach against moving too fast,
and mourn too-many of our too-speedy loved ones.

If Twenty-Miles-Per-Hour Caused Cancer

Bob Komives

Speed limits would be posted in journals
but unnecessary along our roads.
Sixty-one would be minimum legal age for sprinting.
Health food stores would sell slowing vegetables
harvested by nearby, slow farmers,
and, as well,
they would sell speeding herbs
believed, in certain cults, to grant immunity. 

If twenty-miles-per-hour caused cancer
the word “automobile” would be old-fashion,
a quaint mistake of inventive evolution
on the road to the all-weather Sport-Utility Chair.
the trendy, Hand-Made, Low-Gear Bicycle,
and, of course, the Humphrey:
     Hybrid Horse-Horseless buggy
     fueled half-time by stew of its own manure.

Fort Collins © 2007 :: If If Twenty-Miles-Per-Hour Caused Cancer :: 0711