Stagnant Work Zone

It’s been guarding a hole that doesn't exist

for three weeks. The orange is fading

to a sick, dusty peach.

Today a kid in a hoodie gave it a lazy boot,

and it rolled into the gutter like a dead weight.

Nobody came to pick it up.

It just lies there in the soot,

a plastic warning for a danger

that moved on a long time ago.

I walked around it. I always walk around things.