Where two lanes have gone through an intersection for years and years,
now one ends in LEFT TURN ONLY
and where everyone has formed a wobbly quick-reflex line going forward,
a surprised car sits at the light with a blinker.
Do you help them get over
or force them into turning away?

They are

-an older gentlemen exasperatedly lamenting
getting lambasted for his use of a word
that wasn’t a problem to say back when times were different.
But times are different now–only one lane moves forward–
yet he feels he just can’t keep up with new rules,
new words, new pronouns, and no matter how hard he tries
he’s always in the wrong lane longing
to go back to when he knew what was going on.

-another who was born poor, stayed poor, never known
life that wasn’t survival from pay check to pay check,
all work, little time to learn, and this is what I believe
because it’s how Mom and Pop always said it should be,
finally catching a break and taking a step up in life,
earning a brand new appreciation for how much bigger,
how evermore changing the world is from the holler.

-a righteous person coming from church every Sunday
except they’ve taken the time to intimately know the Bible
and now suddenly the pastor and the people aren’t quite
the saints one used to look up to–how the world is full of individuals
coming from an infinity of walks through life and how
everybody’s relationship with God is their own, estranged
or intertwined, how nothing is gained by screaming you’re going to hell!
but not quite fully understanding of all the trans- and -sexualities yet
and still sensitive to vicious derisions from occasionally driving the wrong lane.

-or me, just beginning to hatch from conservative echoes
but still with Trump in my heart in May 2016,
attending my first open mic poetry reading
when the emcee goes on a rant about how Trump is the worst
and his followers all suck and everybody’s clapping
except for me
because they don’t know they just told me
you’ve already picked your lane, now lie
in that bug-ridden bed you’ve made.
Yeah. Would you go back?

We need to remember that the journey is long,
that there are some people just starting from places far away
with every intention to keep moving forward.
And while there will always be those trying to jump ahead in line
and those who will simply go another way,
many are good, if still working through a few persistent flaws
that every so often puts them into the wrong lane.

Do you help them get over
or force them into turning away?