Strange Signage

I took this photo when I was in Ireland. It has always made me laugh because I see the oddest thing in this image.

 “Come this way. I will help you cross.”

 

She’s a trusting little girl, and she’ll go where he tells her to.

 

A tiny lunchbox in her hand, a darling flair to her skirt. Her momma dressed her up smart for school.

 

But the crossing guard’s not a guard, and he has something different in his hand.

 

Stepping down off the curb carefully like she’s been taught, she trusts that he’s behind her all the way.

 

And he is.

 

Watching her step down off the curb carefully like she’s been taught, he trusts his knife will pierce her all the way.

 

And it does.

Reviews

[Doug]

You definitely have a prose poetry style. Of course you write really interesting stories. One thing I'd recommend would be to delve into something that's probably more unfamiliar to you. Write short poetry. Write something like a 10 line poem with only three or four words on a line at a time. That will be completely different than what you're doing now. It'd be a good exercise on how important every single word is. I'll try to find a few examples where I've done that so you can get the idea. I'll send you the links to read. Writing short poems are so much harder, in my opinion, than longer ones since each word is a million times more important.

[Kara Emily Krantz]

oh man a little morbid lol but you definitely kept my attention adn the flow worked really really well. definitely intrigued me, and the images you created straight from teh start were really well done

hugs

[Raef C. Boylan]

Aw man, this cracked me up. You should visit again because so many of our road signs (UK) are ambiguous and appear sinister when they're supposed to be friendly warnings.
On school gates there is usually a sign saying 'BEWARE: CHILDREN' [interpretation: drive slowly]. We had a hearing impaired unit at our primary school, so ours said: 'BEWARE: DEAF CHILDREN'.
Our signs for road works look like a guy struggling to open an umbrella, and our sign to go slow because of elderly people, like the one in your picture, also looks like a mugging type scene.

I like how you were inspired by what you saw, and took the time to create a story to go along with it. Quite chilling.

I always feel bad for the people in pictures to indicate toilets - they have no hands to wipe themselves.
Thanks for sharing this imaginative piece.