Red Flag Poem by Maya Hanson

I don't want to be longing after
the green we could have lived
if you hadn't slammed on the brakes.

It's funny how this started out as searing third degree skin
and ended without even fading to black,
it's funny how you took the same color I felt like a shock wave
and used it to fill in the stoplights,
I hate how you always drew inside the lines.

Should have seen it like a red flag,
shapes to make me stumble before I fell at your feet,
triangles that would have saved me
all this precious time.

From now on I swear
I will never sit in the passenger seat,
the brakes will feel all my choices like a jolt
even more than they felt your fear.