You are stuck in traffic
in a cab that keeps hiccuping
and coughing
like a child with a nasty bout of cold
Each time the vehicles stop
the cab driver, a disgruntled old man
snoozes off on the steering wheel
so that every time traffic eases
you have to shout “Baba”
to jolt him from his slumber
Soon enough, he is woken again,
and you brace yourself
as he jump starts the car
plunging you forward from your seat
while he belts out “Onikuure“
to an okada man swerving into his lane
You finally hit the freeway
but the cab has hicupped its last
and you wonder,
heart thumping in your throat
if it is his nearing the river Styx
or the alcohol you perceive in his breath
that makes him stop his cab
right in the middle of the road
and glide backward, interrupting vehicles racing past,
all in the name of resucitating the cab
