Day 11

Well, this was a fun poem to write!  Today's prompt is to compose a poem on the theme of warnings.  My imagination went all across the boards on this idea...  finally settling on a cautionary tale for myself.  Since I had a long drive home from the school where I spent the way working, what better setting for my poem than the driver's seat of my car?



Cautionary Indicators

My car contains a carefully engineered system
of cautionary  indicators, both sound and light,
to alert me in advance to virtually any possible
hazard that I may encounter while on the road. 

“Someone’s got my back, my safety matters,”
I think to myself, settling into the drivers seat.

Ding!   Ding!   Ding!  A gentle chime reminds
me to fasten my seat belt as I enter the vehicle.
Some days, I’m in a rush to get from Point A to
Point B so the seat belt remains flaccid, useless

as it hangs by my side.  Still, my car continues,
chimes its plaintive monotone song because it
cares.

Around the holiday season, I always find it nice
to see the dashboard lights lit bright and cheery
as I drive.  Check Engine.  Low Oil.  Rear Hatch
Open.  And, here’s a funny one that reminds me

of an inverted house key, inexplicably, floating
calmly on the ocean.  I wonder what it means?

With all of today’s technology, it strikes me as
an oversight that we have yet to install caution-
ary lights on humans.  I’d have surely kept my
distance had there only been some sort of indi-

cator, a red light flashing on your forehead, to
warn me of the danger you posed to my safety.