When I drive
or even better
when I’m a passenger
I enjoy looking at bumper stickers
on the cars I see around me
I love to laugh along with the witticisms
I love to shake my head either
in agreement
or disagreement
with their politics
I might like their team
I might not like their team
(But, look, it’s
only
a game)
I normally appreciate the sentiments
but sometimes I don’t
When I drive
or even better
when I’m a passenger
I like to look at bumper stickers
99 out of a hundred times
Every once in awhile
and today was such a day
I have to wonder
what that person has been through
in order to want to express
that sort of message to the world
on the back
of his or her car
The pain
speaking to me
speaking to everyone who follows
They don’t know me
I don’t know them
sometimes
sometimes I wonder.
Yet There is Method 
As I read I thought about the bumper stickers I see in my town. Some give me pause. Most have something to do w/ guns or which school the vehicle owner supports. Then I arrived at the end of your poem, and I began seeing the people who pasted the sticker on the car. I don’t typically do that because bumper stickers often articulate cliches. Yes, each sticker represents a story and a life of the owner.
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This tells me so much about the kind of person you are. Your post is very generous. Perhaps SOL is getting to me, but wouldn’t it be a fascinating premise for a book of short stories? Maybe each bumper sticker as a chapter title?
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I’ve never thought about bumper stickers in this way, but I am completely intrigued now. I will ponder them better from now on!
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Bumper sticker folk wisdom is one genre: “Getting old ain’t for sissies.” And then there’s the political polarization or the person who says we can have it all: Jesus, Evolution, and Whatever. What I appreciate about your post is the thoughtful observation, wondering about the driver and what moved a person to post a sticker on their vehicle.
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You made me think of bumper stickers in a different way…to wonder who the person is who needs to express so much to the whole world. I like the poetic format.
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One of my favorites was not a bumper sticker, but a license plate spotted on a Smart car. Yep, right below the “Smart” the license plate read “Aleck.” I laughed out loud.
But your slice is so true… sometimes we can only wonder what has happened to a person to make them display messages with so much anger in them- as you point out, there is a lot of pain out there. It’s a moment that calls for a prayer right in the moment.
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