Crossing the Street in Laguna Beach
Los Angeles Times readers submitted their views in verse for a feature dedicated to opinion poetry.
(Anthony Russo / For The Times )
Thank you for not killing me in the metal-grilled cross-hairs
of your monstrous SUV as I crossed the street
cautiously, in full view, in daylight, in the crosswalk
where I thought I had a lawful right to be
and indeed once did in a different, slower world
when I could meander and even take a peek upward
at a trail of pelicans
or outward at a glorious pod of dolphins,
but now I must deal with the likes of you
as you fight for space, wrecking the world
with anger
and the awful weight of your toys.
The author, a teacher at the Gifted Students Academy at UC Irvine, lives in Laguna Beach.
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