Highway Billboard

A highway billboard reads: If you died today would you be ready for hell? My parents died, I feel a distant sorrow that grows tighter like a vine as the years pass. My dog dies, I shed real tears; a sour sap pools in my gut. Five thousand souls perish somewhere far away - nothing. I suspect heaven is a tattoo over this world’s blemishes. Maybe Hell is just a place for the petty and predictable - as commonplace as a pimple or an itch. Maybe we just don't notice the big sadness all around us just the small irrelevancies. I drive on-by fast like I always do, trying not to think of my old cold heart.