And Then I Look Away (edit 1)

[btrudo]

1st Edit:
Exhaust of the Day

Seven-thirty flashes; he knows
an hour later this would not be
a crush of traffic. But he stares,
forcing wheels between the stripes that
spend his life demanding checks for
grosses' calculated need of
hours punched on-time, therefore he sits,

now trapped beyond the glass—a face
smeared among all those wheels and all
those shields. On red, he spies a pair
of eyes also sealed in their lines.
Turning green, they briefly catch his.



original version:
And Then I Look Away

I have become caught in traffic.
It's seven-thirty and I know
a half-hour later it would not be
so much so. But I keep staring,
forcing the car between the lines,
because life demands the paycheck
and the paycheck demands the hour
and the hour demands that I sit,
a face trapped behind the windshield,
caught among all these wheels and all
these shields. And sometimes I catch a set
of eyes sealed in their own lined world.
Sometimes they also catch mine.