the snail that stopped the traffic
by Luminita Suse
had no idea what work means
mortgage, debt, paycheque
- words unheard of
to speed seemed silly
since festina lente is nature’s way
it only knew a few verbs
to be, to eat, to crawl
and was about to propose a new verb
to write
if only it could reach the park
on the other highway side
where the academic snail community
crept
so, it first ate the green from
the stoplight
and crawled back to curb
much aware of the adverb late
and that the leaf tied to its shell
might dry out
with the poem written on it
Published in Bywords Quarterly Journal, Vol. 7, No 4, 2009
