Traffic Cone

Traffic Cone
By Becky Susen



ZOOM. ZOOM. ZOOM.

All I hear.

HONK! BEEP! "WATCH IT!"

Cars ZOOM by
Everyone's running
Everyone's going
No one stops
Everyone ZOOMS ZOOMS ZOOMS
Even at night.

A deer and a fawn attempt to cross;
SCREECH! CRASH! HONK!
The fawn runs away.
The deer doesn't.

In the drak,
A porcupine sees no cars.
Then they're upon him.
BUMP.
Daylight and red smears on the tar.
A lump of fur on the side near the grass.

Night comes.
Then someone stops.
The car behind comes ZOOMing so fast
the people don't even see it until
there's a SCREECH of tires and a
CRASH and a
TINKLING sound of glass.
And SCREAMS.

Lights shining all over.
No smears of red.
Lots of glass.
SIRENS.
Colored lights whirl all around, coming and going.
CRYING and MOANING.
The lights stay 'til
the big light comes in the morning.
Then the colored lights are gone.
There are a few shards of glass.

A turtle crawls
so slow,
I know there's no hope.

Except, it crosses the rumble strip and the white line on the side.
Cars ZOOM.
Every time one ZOOMs, the turtle pauses
then resumes its deadly crawl.

No ZOOMs for a few minutes, now.
The turtle takes advantage of that and makes it
to the middle of the road.
I hear a ZOOM coming.
The turtle knows.

It stops and looks.
SCREECH!
I wait for the BUMP,
or the CRUNCH,
but none do I hear.
The car stops.
The turtle goes.


A second ZOOM is sounding up.
It stops with no SCREECH!

The turtle goes.

A third ZOOM, not so loud.

YELLS! from second car.

"G' WAN!"
"IT'S A TURTLE!"

HONK! from third.

The turtle goes.

Fourth ZOOM and fifth zoom come.
HONKs from fifth.
The turtle goes.

Seventh, eighth, and ninth zoom.

HONK! HONK! YELLS!

The turtle goes.

Tenth slowly creeps in from behind.
The turtle crosses the white line on the side.

CLAPPING from first ZOOM.
CHEERS.

HONKing stops.
Cars start to ZOOM away.

Soon the ZOOMing is steady.

ZOOM. ZOOM. ZOOM.

All I hear.