"A Long Time Coming"

In honor of National Poetry Month, I have shared examples of my work on Fridays in April.
For our final day of National Poetry Month 2021, I share with you a new poem, "A Long Time Coming."

A Long Time Coming

I see her as I drive by, headlights saturating a woman
by the side of the freeway, on the grassy triangle
surrounded by trees between the on and off ramps, her arms
outstretched as though basking in an invisible sun, palms open
and up as if weighing her options, eyes closed, face to the sky.
Despite the snow and dark, she wears an ankle length summer dress,
her bare brown arms and shoulders glowing in the beams from my grill.
I may see all this in a second, but she has been standing here a long time.

I have passed no car that could belong to her, and wonder where she came from, how she got here,
but a police cruiser has already slowed, parked, the blue red hiccupping in the black.
The officer walks toward her and I see in my rear view mirror how he simply stops,
falls forward in the snow, without any attempt to break his fall, settling face down,
neither of them moving as they grow smaller, fade into the night.

©JEF 2021