driver and pedestrian at the intersection

Robert Fleming
Published on July 29, 2021

on a tarred street
           i came to be a driver in a car,
stopped at a red light,
           that turned green,
                      for me,
along came a walker
           walking against my way
                      toward their red light
                                 looking at their phone,
           i was looking at them
                      listening to the radio

i have been here
           many times,
                      in dreams too,
sometimes i was reversed,
           i was the walker
                      against the light
           walking pedestrians rules
the right of way
           is mine

i am the driver
           let the walker cross?
           honk?
                      hit the walker?
           rehear my driving teacher?
                      the goal of driving is to get
                      to a destination
                      without!
                      an accident,
                                 every time you do that
                                 you are a success!

my driving teacher is dead
           i will drive what I want
                      and redrive this intersection
                                 until i am thru

Genre: 
Poetry
Author Bio: 

Robert Fleming lives in Lewes, DE, USA.   He has been published in United States, Canada, and Australia, and is a member of the Rehoboth Beach (RBWG) & Eastern Shore Writer’s Guild, as well as free write leader for the RBWG and artist share co-host at the Lewes, DE library.  In 2019, he was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for the poetry anthology Stonewall Legacy, and was the 1983 winner of a student journalism award for a Duran Duran concert review in the Brandeis University newspaper The Justice.

Issue: 
62