Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TRAFFIC WARNING, by RICHARD WARNER BORST


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TRAFFIC WARNING, by                
First Line: I saw the wreck a little after it happened
Last Line: Drive carefully—for perilous is the highway!
Subject(s): Accidents; Death; Soldiers; War; Dead, The



I saw the wreck a little after it happened:
A car lay up-side-down beside the pavement;
The crowd stood by and gaped upon a drop
Of blood—the sickening symbol of a death,
A limp, white body quickly lifted, thrust
Into an ambulance and hurried graveward.

It came to me, then, with a sudden pang,
That what is so appalling as this wreck,
In war is but the usual run of things:
There is no brooding on one drop of blood
When the red streams flow darkly from the veins
Of millions sprawling, ghastly, still forever.

O you who hold the wheels that guide the nations,
Drive carefully—for perilous is the highway!





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