Traffickwocky

Traffickwocky enthusiastically embraces the undeniable and inescapable imperfection of Austin, Texas: horrendous congestion. And we're not talking about mucus here - though we do have our share of allergies, too. Traffic poet Tex MoPac boldly navigates his way along the highways, byways and access roads, littered with fast food joints and broken dreams. MoPac dares to chronicle both famous and pathetically average people (like himself) - all stuck in the great common denominator - Austin traffic. This orange barrel-busting volume includes more-than-likely award-winning hits like, “Richard Linklater Caught in Traffic,” “Shakespeare Stuck in Traffic,” “Masters Winner Stuck in Traffic," "Google Fiber Stuck in Traffic," and “Trail of Brake Lights.” Traffickwocky features a foreword ("Ugh...If I Could Only Go Forward") by Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, and a cover illustration by Samantha Rauch. Buckle up for this example! 

                                                             STOP-N-GO HIPSTER      

                                   We parallel one another at speeds under 5 m.p.h.

                                   I can see the setting sun through the enormous hole in his ear lobe. 

Austin, Texas: one of the hippest and hottest cities in the land. Live music, great food, college sports, easy livin', right? Perhaps. But a malevolent and voracious monster also dominates central Texas, threatening daily the utopian ideal. His name? The Traffickwock. Austin is consistently ranked among the nation's most congested cities and continued growth combined with an overwhelmed infrastructure don't necessarily suggest relief any time soon. Thankfully a bold and tireless poet has stepped up to make sense of it all. To fight the Traffickwock with the pen. To introduce the world to a previously unrecognized and unfairly unheralded literary sub genre: traffic poetry (and whatnot). That's right, no "expressway" is too jammed. No Austin driver is too important, nor too pathetic, to escape the keen eye and occasional rhyme of Tex MoPac. 

Praise & Criticism for Trafficwocky

• “It really helped me reconcile with Austin traffic. I have decided to move back to rural Ohio.”- Devin Stauffer
• “I used to hate traffic. Now I hate it even more. I’ve read some disgusting poetry in my life, but this stuff is awful. Steer clear of this. Get it?” - Aaron Dorfzaun
  
• “I get it. Horrible poetry to match the horrible traffic!” - Gordon Center
  
• “I liked the one about the guy in the green jacket!” - Andrew Cope
  
• “Honestly, the fall of 2016 was terribly depressing - first the World Series and then the election. But Traffickwocky lifted my spirits. I’m so glad I don’t live in Austin.”  - Jeffrey Dawson

Tex MoPac was born in the backseat of a Greyhound Bus on TX-71. The bus was stuck in traffic. He considers himself the Bard of Austin Traffic. No one else considers him this. After a wonderfully sheltered upbringing in Tiffin, Ohio, he went to Kenyon College to study the “Mundane Movement,” a bold new type of poetry. His professors hoped that he, like them, would write poems about doing laundry, washing dishes or standing outside of bathrooms dutifully holding their better half’s purse. One day, however, MoPac witnessed a farmer’s hay wagon jackknife in downtown Gambier, Ohio, causing a three-car back-up. Ba-bam! - the first traffic poem was born. Tex MoPac suggests that Austinites love to think they are united in some glorious and hip way: the love of live music, food trucks or college football. That may be true for some, but when you really get down to it, Tex MoPac maintains, there is only one true unifying (and horrifying) experience, the abominable monster that seems to grow stronger by the day: traffic. Honk! Honk!