11/05/2010

Hymn to Asphaltia (Goddess of Parking & Traffic)


Press 'play' on both tracks at once... close your eyes and listen...  
When you're done, scroll down and click the cartoon.... 

1. Goddess of Parking and Traffic by and courtesy of David Garner

2. Hymn to Asphaltia read by Kristen Caven at Heart of the Muse, 11/4/10



I sing to thee, Asphaltia!

To thy hard and pulsing veins
ribbons of desire and direction that
connect our home driveways,
one to the other,
across this great and blessed land!

I sing thy praise, Asphaltia!
Goddess of Parking and Traffic,
before these, thy blessed servants,
devoted drivers of thy scenic roads!

I offer thee this sacrifice:
A mangled bike.
A twisted wheel.

For you, benevolent goddess of the streets,
there are not enough poems in my grateful soul
to express my delight
in your watchful eye.

I praise and thank thee tonight!

For the grip you gave the screeching tires when the driver saw the child.
For the clear streets that swiftly brought the ambulance.
For the green lights as I followed the sound, screaming in my car.
For the pavement you made soft where he landed.
(There were no broken bones or skin.)

Asphaltia, I praise thee!

Our devotion is our salvation:
To the zipper dance of merging manners;
To the air in the tires of your prayer-wheels;
To the tar we pour to patch the scars in your skin.
Our attention to your ever-blinking eyes of light.

There are not enough words in my ravaged soul
to thank you
for preserving

my beloved.

(Oh, and for that sweet parking spot you gave me tonight.)


-kristen caven 11/4/10

2 comments:

Brad said...

I have an altar to her in my car, and invoke her with a call for Doris Day Parking! (just watch any movie with Doris Day and you'll see she pulls into the sweetest parking spots at any time of day or night, anywhere!)

Kristen Caven said...

Love it!