Need help with title and/or author

[alanna_bologna]

I can not recall a title/author for a sci fi story I read in high school.

The story line is about a being that is on another planet studying the strange creatures. The observer can see the mechanical pieces inside these creatures. You find out at the end of the story that the observer is an alien and he is on Earth to study humans, but he has mistaken our cars for actual beings.

It's driving me crazy that I can't remember.

 

[hodor]

Sounds interesting, however I have no clue. I will check around though and see what I can come up with by tomorro as it is nearly my bedtime now.

 

[The Master™]

Sounds like one of those comic style books - Harry Harrison or Tom Holt or the like...

Sorry, draws a blank!!! *Shrug*

 

[zorcarepublic]

No idea, sorry...

 

[Circus Cranium]

Damn, I know that one. But I can't remember.............

 

[CassFrank]

As suggested on another site - this is likely not a short story but a poem. Namely, May Swenson’s “Southbound on the Freeway.” (1963) It appears many places. The poem is below:

A tourist came in from Orbitville,
parked in the air, and said:

The creatures of this star
are made of metal and glass.

Through the transparent parts
you can see their guts.

Their feet are round and roll
on diagrams of long

measuring tapes, dark
with white lines.

They have four eyes.
The two in back are red.

Sometimes you can see a five-eyed
one, with a red eye turning

on the top of his head.
He must be special--

the others respect him
and go slow

when he passes, winding
among them from behind.

They all hiss as they glide,
like inches, down the marked

tapes. Those soft shapes,
shadowy inside

the hard bodies--are they
their guts or their brains?

Southbound On The Freeway-5-3

Title: Southbound on the Freeway

www.isfdb.org

Short story where aliens think cars are the dominant life form on Earth

What was the name of a short story about aliens thinking cars are the dominant life form and the humans inside are their internal organs? I read it in the UK in the 1980s in English in a science fi...

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