Red Light Poem by hollie ash

one time last summer i was sitting at a red light, eleven hundred miles from home. and it occured to me that perhaps i could just sit there forever.

i wouldn't have to pay any bills, or think of anything really. i could just sit there in neutral, literally and psychologically, for all of eternity.

cars would whiz past me; people coming and going. happy or hurting. new babies, old ladies. on business or pleasure. and me. just barely existing in the middle of it all, which is how i had been feeling anyway.

then the light turned green, and i sat there for another moment, until the car behind me honked. so i shifted into first and hit the gas, heading further away from home, which suited me just fine.