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Open Poetry #8
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Traffic Report
| Open Poetry #8 |
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Traffic Report |
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LngJhnAg Member Elite
since 1999-07-23
Posts 3508Boot+Kitty=Poetry in motion 
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I heard it on the traffic report this morning, A woman was hit by a train, Traffic was a mess. Take alternate routes. My God! Take alternate routes? A woman was HIT by a train this morning! I heard it on a traffic report! Traffic was a mess. I heard more of the story this afternoon. The woman was sitting on the track. The train couldn't stop. They don't know who she was. Stop and think about it. The woman was sitting on the track. Did she want the train to stop? Did she know who she was? How sad she may have been to sit there. Knowing the train was coming. Hearing the air horn pleading with her to move. Having nowhere else to go. I heard it on the traffic report this morning, A woman was hit by a train, Traffic was a mess. Take alternate routes. Shouldn't we be saddened? Where are we going? Is our train coming, too? Listen to the news. Tomorrow, traffic will be a mess somewhere else. Take alternate routes. Listen to the radio. More news in the afternoon. |
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| © Copyright 2000 Michael Waterman - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
The saddest part of this all is...where was her family? It really happened here, not too long ago... truth, stranger than fiction, always... Sunny ~~~Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. Helen Keller ~~~ When you want to be loved, look within...KRJ |
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brian madden Member Elite
since 2000-05-06
Posts 4374ireland |
It is strange that such reports seem to add a certain detachment to the event"woman..dead" it never seems real. Thank you for adding the humane aspect back the tragic event. A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
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LngJhnAg Member Elite
since 1999-07-23
Posts 3508Boot+Kitty=Poetry in motion |
Its sad to say that a traffic report is the first news format that covers this tragic tale of a person's life at its lowest point. Tnaks for the responses. Film at 11. |
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Balladeer
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-05
Posts 25505Ft. Lauderdale, Fl USA |
I'll tell you what, LongJhn. This is the best thing I've seen you do. The style, the description, the report, the outrage and sadness....every word is perfect and the delivery is right on. I may be influenced by the fact that there was an accident in front of me going to work this morning. Police set up detours and traffic had to be diverted around. As I passed by the scene, I saw two people laying in the middle of the road. Drivers were honking at each other for cutting in and properly outraged at this inconvenience. I thought at the time the people laying in the road would have gladly traded places with them.....Great writing, Mike. |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Are we reduced to this? A bunch of uncaring 'workers' intent only on finding the fastest way to reach our tacky little cubicles? Shame on us! This is such a heartbreaking poem. Imagine that woman, just sitting there! Natural instinct would tell anyone to get up and run! Get away! Danger! She must have been in such a state do just sit there...and be hit by a train....just sit there...can't imagine it........ |
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Tennessee Angel Senior Member
since 2000-06-03
Posts 661Tennessee |
A body on the road side covered in a sheet of white. Impatient drivers tap the dash as if simply pausing at a red light. ----------------- It's so sad what we've become accustomed to. I read this several times before responding because I tried to think if I have become so desensitized. They said on the news yesterday that 12 people were killed in auto accidents in NE Tenn. over the holiday weekend and it didn't break my heart like it should have. Beautiful and heart wrenching piece. [This message has been edited by Tennessee Angel (edited 07-06-2000).] |
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Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049California |
Long John--I'm with Balladeer--you wrote this so well!!... Makes me remember a poem I wrote in the 60's when I was idealistic and wanted to change the world and then found out I couldn't "Valves of empty headed men being turned on spewed forth banana peels, I slipped on one and hurt my heart" |
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Seymour Tabin Member Empyrean
since 1999-07-07
Posts 31720Tamarac Fla |
LngJhnAg, Your getting better, even Balladeer noticed. Good writing. |
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LngJhnAg Member Elite
since 1999-07-23
Posts 3508Boot+Kitty=Poetry in motion |
Even a dyed-in-the-wool conservative such as myself recognizes something is horribly wrong with us all when we slip on by and get on with life as if nothing has really happened to our soul. Nothing has happened? I heard it on the traffic report this morning, A woman was hit by a train, Traffic was a mess. Take alternate routes. Stop and think about it. The woman was sitting on the track. Did she want the train to stop? Did she know who she was? How sad she may have been to sit there. Knowing the train was coming. Hearing the air horn pleading with her to move. Having nowhere else to go. It bothered me - where have I been? Thanks for your comments... maybe there IS a conscious out there. |
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