The Green Man

The green man ushers me across the road
so I turn to say thankyou
but I realise that he cannot speak.
He is just a jelly baby
and hasn't yet learn't his ABC's.

Walk! Dont walk!
Why is the world just
a network of imperatives these days?

I spit at the stop sign
and refuse to slow down
until it asks nicely.

An hour later I have been captured and killed
by the powers that be.
I lie pallid, and grey as an elephant
on my steel morgue tray
nagged like a substandard marine
to follow orders properly.