Red Light, Green Light, Stop

Finished — take — a familiar path —
straight to your closest intersection
pause for the Red Light
turn your back to front,
look ahead and — wait — watch the light — and wait
Green Light — watch the people cross
count-down, and breathe — and watch — their feet with each second
Red Light — turn back and look at where you’ve come
remember each footstep you took to arrive
Green Light — close your eyes —
imagine each step you might take going forward
open your eyes — Red Light
collect the people gathered around you
cast your eyes — and look — at their eyes
connect with them, each of them,
Green Light — stop —
your eyes walk with them — watch —
wait — do they look back? — at you
Red Light — go home
and write your journey — begun.

∞

Submitted as part of “National/Global Poetry Writing Month” (#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo).

Today’s prompt: Day Four: “Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem . . . in the form of a poetry prompt. If that sounds silly, well, maybe it is! But it’s not without precedent. The poet Mathias Svalina has been writing surrealist prompt-poems for quite a while, posting them to Instagram. You can find examples here, and here, and here.”