The poem "Southbound on the Freeway" by May Swenson is narrated by an alien. The alien describes what it sees when it looks at a freeway. The alien continues to make acute observations of the cars on the freeway thinking that these are the beings of this star. The final observation it makes comes out in the form of a question that concerns the internal parts of the cars. It questions whether the internal parts, being humans, are the guts or the brains. This poem opens many doors for abstract interpretation and at first glance may be puzzling to the reader, but a deeper meaning lies beneath.

The poet is trying to get the point across that many people in this world let their material possessions run their life rather than us running them as they were meant to be. The final question, "are they their guts or...