The speaker wakes from deep sleep into a nightmare that feels like a car ride they never agreed to. Panic and Fear, pictured as strange men in suits, pick them up, and the speaker ends up wedged between them in the front seat. The image of meat pressed between slices of hard bread makes the speaker feel squeezed, helpless, and almost consumed. The two figures keep appearing and reappearing, and the comparison to the grim reaper suggests the dread has something to do with death, though the poem never says exactly what.
The mood is tense and claustrophobic. Short, jumpy lines and odd, playful sound patterns ("bumming a ride," "down low," "side-kick") sit uneasily beside the menace, which makes the scene feel both absurd and frightening, like a dream. The title hints that the speaker was not in control, doing what others wanted. By the end the highway "stops singing" and only "night terror songs" remain, leaving a sense of being trapped in fear with no clear way out.