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03 RMR's writing space: Before the light turns green
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34 At a slowly changing
Traffic light
The stranger on a bicycle
Starts to talk.
These are conversations
I do not want.
I’ve known since childhood:
Leave the strangers alone
Especially the eccentrics
And the slightly insane.
It begins to drive me crazy that he won’t go away:
This is not a conversation it’s an endless rant.
And one thing's for certain:
It's going nowhere.
No introductions,
No “how are yous”
Is he just your average,
Lonely man?
Did I appear so friendly
That I’d make a good friend?
I wonder:
does he always talk
In such a one sided way?
He tells me random facts concerning bicycle rides.
The rest of his words
Are endless monologues.
If I smile and nod
He might go away.
Why does silence attract
So much attention
When all you did
Was live your life?
He’s endlessly blabbering
And I’m nothing but bored
Why is this traffic light
Refusing to change?
At a time like this
I need to get away
But that’s impossible: The only traffic light
Is yet to turn green.
I’m trapped/ I want so badly
To walk away.
He continues to blabber
And tell me random facts
I’m beginning to wonder:
Will he ever shut up?
I want, more then anything
To escape this crazy circumstance.
I still can’t believe
This is my only way out.
Since when are traffic lights
So ridiculously slow?
I wish this wasn’t
My only getaway.
He continues ranting
And I no longer care.
I want to give up,
I want this conversation to end,
And I want/ so badly
TO walk away.
All this is possible
With a reliable traffic light.
But this is not an ordinary
Traffic light!
Kindness
Is so inconvenient
At a time like this: telling the truth
Is impossibility.
If I weren’t so polite
I would tell him one thing:
“Please shut up
And leave me alone”.
My sympathy
For his loneliness has disappeared.
When he talks so selfishly:
Isolation is inevitability.
My responses are nothing
But muttered words.
I can no longer take my eyes
Off the traffic light.
Hopefully if I keep staring
The light will change
I stare at the light
For a bit more time.
The listening stops:
Why should I care?
Finally/ so relieved:
The light is green
And then I know
I can finally escape.
Without a word
I walk away
He goes his direction
And I go mine
Although it was frustration
I helped a lonely man:
I acted as the cure
For loneliness
That’s twice now I’ve seen him
And the first time we talked
It doesn’t matter
That I wasn’t paying much attention
To what he had to say
Because someone was a friendly companion towards a guy/ so alone.
It’s time to leave
This escape from routine.
All that matters
Is that two people exchanged words today.
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