Lights flash on and off along with the faint call of car alarms A whisper of the breeze of this already freezing day The air filled with murmurs of thoughts, thick with concentration That would just fade back into the blurs around me as the lights change from red to green Automobiles screaming at each other through the stops Where did everyone have to go that was so important? How did they see through this blurry mess that rests in my eyes? Standing in the middle of the crosswalk, frozen The stink of metal, and the smell of pastries And for a moment, everything was silent—still And the world was beautiful as it became clear The scream of tires, and flashing lights, and—— Shoulders bumped into mine, urging as the students released from the day And from their cloudy skies rained down into stomping feet that moved with mine Into the screaming lights of the cars, back into a place where people rushed To rise and to go back into the motions that I have memorized As if eyes closed, because they might as well be blind I can’t see a thing