Waiting at a Red Light With No Cars Around

I just sat there

Waiting

For the light to change

For once

I wasn’t in a rush

But I couldn’t stop myself

From tapping on the brake

Letting the engine rev

Running my tongue

Over my teeth

While a piece of twisted metal

Sat in the middle of the road

Behind me

I had just skirted around it

Avoiding a blown out tire

Or something worse

What a way

To kick off the week

The road to my meeting

In Temple-Hyatt

Is infrequently traveled

A Frost kind of path

And it felt odd

Being in the middle of a Monday

With nobody else in sight

I thought about heading east

Skipping the meeting

Claiming a last-minute stomach bug

And spending the day

At that oyster place I like

By the water

But a certain amount

Of spontaneity

Seems foreign

Even to someone who like me

Who spent the bulk of their thirties

In a polyamorous relationship in Lisbon

Painting flowers on dresses

At one of the local fashion houses

Since then I’ve--how you say?

Mellowed

A little light blue house

In a decent neighborhood

That’ll never be paid off

And a car that only gives me trouble

When I least expect it

The meeting today

Is all about a new ad campaign

We have ready to roll-out

Targeted at the seventy plus crowd

America’s fastest growing demographic

My proposal is fine

But it’s certainly not going

To win me any awards

I’ve become the sort of person

Who just tiptoes through life

Trying not to set off

Any alarms

The light’s still red

When I snap out of my daydream

And I wonder if it’s broken

Part of me thinks

I should just drive on

But then an image flashes

Of an eighteen-wheeler

Coming out of nowhere

And turning my little jalopy

Into a tuna can

So I sit

And tell myself

That I don’t need to be early

To a meeting

Where words like ‘geriatric keywords”

Are going to be used

Unironically

My boss has indicated

That I might be up for a promotion soon

And that would mean travel

Maybe even to Europe

Maybe even to Lisbon

My two exes are still dating each other

And Facebook tells me

They have three kids now

And a house on the coast

Everybody winds up by the coast

Everybody except me

The light stays red

And there’s not a car in sight

I open the windows

And listen closely

To see if I can hear

Anybody approaching

Instead I hear a low whistle

Like something between
A breeze and

The beginning

Of a song

I roll my window back up

And try to relax

Sometimes you get a moment

That’s meant for nothing

But a break

And when it comes

Your only job

Is to enjoy it

So let the light change when it wants to

I don’t need to go any faster

Than I am