Witness To The End Of Vacation

 Witness To The End Of Vacation
  
 “This traffic is so bad
 you could die in it,” I said
 from my Civic. And then, 
 prophetically, someone did.
  
 I blamed the governments - 
 assigning a single customs officer to man
 all eight border control booths on July 4th –  
 The line to leave Canada constipated
  
 for miles. A well-intentioned tourist
 balled a Niagara Falls souvenir
 sweatshirt under the man’s neck
 as they untangled the man
  
 from his seatbelt and unfolded
 his unconscious body
 onto the center lane.  Other drivers
 who weren’t driving anyway
  
 stepped out of their cars to flag
 the wailing ambulance like a parade float, 
 but the man’s heart
 gave up on waiting.  
  
 There is no protocol
 for what to do when a man dies of heart attack 
 in the center lane of border patrol traffic, 
 though we in a five car radius turned off
  
 our radios and engines; It seemed the dead
 should not be subjected to Justin Bieber
 nor bathe in our exhaust.  Miles behind us,
 cars were honking, hungry to get to America.

© 2020 Jewish Young Professional

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I cheated a bit. It’s a revision of an old poem, but it worked well enough for the dVerse Poetics 428 – Poetry as Witness and Go Dog Go Cafe 3 Favorite “W” Words prompts, so I couldn’t resist.