~Red light means STOP, green light means GO! Yellow light means slow down Joe!~

Didn’t know what those words meant together when they exploded from her mouth, unheard as he mounted

~Red light means STOP, Green light means GO!~

He went, full throttle, gears jammed into drive,

Speeding

Heading faster towards the end of the road,

she was friction, pulling against him trying to slow his tires, but he had those tires that could really grip, he gripped tighter, leaving bruises on the steering wheel

~Red light means STOP!~

That was her refrain, stop, please, stop, please,

~Stop, GO~

Each word rising in intensity, the yelling excited him, revved his engine, made his hips push the gas a little further, she screamed trying to pull away, reach the door…but he was locked…on her, in her, puzzle pieces forced to interlock, like a corner of ground trying to fit into a piece of sky, she floated, trying to leave her body behind, leave the wreckage behind

~Red light, Green light, you’re out!~

She was out…gone, her eyes vacant

~Caution, slow for the curve ahead!~

He slowed, his gas tank reaching empty until he finally came to a halt, his tires screaming against her barricades, scraping, sending sparks and a million soldiers into her battlefield still in peace time, peasants becoming warlords to fight them off but they weren’t ready…she wasn’t ready.

~Red light means STOP, means STOP, MEANS STOP!~

He rolled off, she reentered her body when he exited, enough room for her to exist again, and she wrapped herself in a sheet, scratching against her yellow tinted skin, she stared at him.

He looked back once, smiling.

She thought he would take her somewhere to be free because giant storage boxes on the back of boats weren’t freedom, just captured illusions forced in her skin, her lungs breathing in sickness, buckets her place to release waste and waste away until nothing remained but broken pieces of a glass vase that once held pure water…until he drank them.

~Red light MEANS STOP, but he just kept going, kept going, stop speeding!~

He kept smiling, glued on plastic pieces of lips smashed together on the face of a devil in human skin, he said something as he smiled, leaving the room, leaving her behind but she couldn’t understand him…her tongue didn’t speak the language that his had come accustomed to caressing, she muttered something, her language mingling with the air of forced passion, dry walls…he promised her freedom but lies were as common to him as she was.

~No attention given to streets sign~

No attention to body language because they were as foreign as she was

~You’re license could be suspended!~

She tried urgently to remember the number for emergency in this country,

Dialing in numbers with bruised fingers, answer.

She stuttered, feeling a word come from her mouth, her soul cringing as it was brought into existence, born from his misleading attitude, his lack of fear in an immigrant with no ties here, no point to remain except that which he gave her…just a toy made in China.

~The sign says DO NOT ENTER~

It rolled off her lips

~That’s a one way street!~

The operator began to speak rapidly, her mood uninterested…she was asked was she sure it wasn’t consensual,

The words meant nothing to young girl who left her country for the hope that she’d be taken care of in the GRAND U.S.A

~Yield for pedestrians~

Who’d believe a young girl lost her innocence, after losing herself to the sounds of the ocean as she crossed into America, lost from her land, lost in her body now, lost while being surrounded by millions,

~Red light means stop, Green light means go, Yellow light means SLOW DOWN JOE!~

Who’d believe her, Who’d help her?!

I would.