And the little one said “rollover!”

"Calculate the rollover risk / of a sedan weighted with fries / on three carpets” OctPoWriMo 2024, Day 22

Calculate the rollover risk
of a sedan weighted with fries 

on three carpets, and the debris 
of lunches past, and airbag zones 

muffled by the landfill of flung jackets.
A hydroplane is not a seaplane, silly. 

You won’t be flying off this frozen lake 
out of a skid. But factor in the buoyancy 

of four young lungs, the weight of a half-
tank of gas, and the grip strength

of parents like us, who cling to the edge
of the bed when little ones join. 

They insinuate themselves after their 
heat-seeking spacewalk. Static stability is, 

by far, the single best predictor of rollover risk.
So the Coriolis Effect doesn’t carry us too far 

off course as we more or less circle around 
the things that we want.

© Tolu Oloruntoba

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Notes

Portion in italics quotes from “The Methodology for Predicting Rollover Risk” by Ellen S. Hertz, Ph. D., National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Photo by Anete Lusina: https://www.pexels.com/photo/miniature-toy-car-on-top-of-monopoly-board-game-4792380/