Shirley J. Brewer

THE TOLL-SKIPPERS

"Maryland Threatens to Block or Yank Vehicle Registration of 131,000 Toll Violators"
—The Baltimore Sun


You know who you are. Oh,
you are going down
beneath that doomed bridge,
down to the tortured soil
where trolls lurk. Death row.

They will make you pay,
boil your wallet in axle grease,
fry your toll arm—
most often the left—serve the snack
with mustard at the troll buffet.

Sure, they will offer to replace
your limb with a metal prosthetic,
a monster hand dispensing
coins for every damaged bridge
peppering this worn-out land we grace.

Show the money, toll-skippers, or hell
awaits. You will take the grimy plunge.
Trolls sniff the air, light a fire,
hungry for flesh in the toll-less night.
Never ask for whom the bell...


Shirley's YouTube video reading of "The Toll-Skippers":



Subscribe and turn on Notifications for Channel 52.


Shirley confesses: "A few years ago, the state of Maryland threatened to block or yank the vehicle registration of thousands of toll violators. From there, I pictured a bridge and a troll. The rhyme of "toll" and "troll" was irresistible!"

SHIRLEY J. BREWER (Baltimore MD) serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for the Arts & Technology. A Pushcart nominee, her poems garnish Barrow Street, Passager, Gargoyle, Little Patuxent Review, Poetry East, Slant, among other journals and anthologies. Shirley’s poetry books include A Little Breast Music (Passager Books), After Words (Apprentice House Press), and Bistro in Another Realm (Main Street Rag). Her fourth poetry collection, Wild Girls, is forthcoming from Apprentice House Press in June, 2023.