Validation

The gate arm stayed down, a heavy white bar

while the carbon monoxide pooled under the car.

I watched through the glass as the elevator sighed

and spilled out the living to go find their ride.

A woman in scrubs dropped her keys by the wheel

and stared at the asphalt like it wasn't quite real.

She didn't reach down. She just stood in the gray

letting the exhaust wash the morning away.

On the pillar beside me, the yellow paint flaked

where the steel of a bumper had bitten and scraped.

A record of all of the turns taken wide

by people too hollow to see what's inside.