"flaggers" poems
emergency repairs to broken roads,
being less than expected,
i prompt some to ask too much.
damage,
storm-related damage,
a million surrenders
by early november,
i throw my arms up
suspending the normal.
wind, waves washed out
every east-west highway,
bypassed permission -
no such thing as
waiting for a good day.
bring in the guard and
hire flaggers, rebuilders
take gravel and rock from the
brooks and rivers,
reduce the cost of me,
consider me open to
no lanes of traffic
crossed-off gates in an absence of hope.
major reconstruction,
let's have a conversation about
existing doesn't mean just fixing
wounds suffered from the storm;
some words of warning -
be careful buying stake
in a girl who's longing for
the day she'll wake up and feel
relief from drowning.
Dec 21, 2011
Dec 21, 2011 at 4:15 PM UTC
I just passed where the accident was
when I was little whenever we passed something like that my parents would make me cover my eyes
But this time I couldn’t cover my eyes
I saw it all
the mangled car
the skid marks which stopped at the edge of the cliff where the car went off
the police taking pictures of the wreck their faces emotionless and blank
the flaggers slowly letting people through, smoking away the stress of what they saw
I feel for the officer who had to tell the family “There’s been a fatal accident” and I feel for the family who had an officer knock on their door and say “There’s been a fatal accident”
And I wish
That my parents were there to say “close your eyes” so I didn’t have to see the violence and sadness of life and death
But this time
I had to drive by
Eyes wide
to the reminder that no one has forever
Jul 26, 2015
Jul 26, 2015 at 11:51 PM UTC