there  there   there it was

 #3 

      the three of three he always anticipated

things come in threes

the first was in a Podunk town off the highwayAtascadero where he stopped to relieve himself it stood on a side street up a hill from the junior high   

the second mocked him in Los Alamos again off the highway up from the gas station off an intersection up a shabby road which lead to an old redbrick school building slovenly leaning in the failing light he couldnt help but wonder if it was still operational it reminded him of grade schools back east two-storied though smaller        

now this morning the yellow plasticmoulded turtle appeared yet again begging S  L  O  W almost hidden behind a squat circular padlocked metal box circular and box didnt jive but he couldnt help but loved it was the third of three jived to the sky he only needed to keep his eyeballs peeled 

                                                          Threes happen

he could make out the red beanie atop its head as he approached

curious he recognised that leaving a school zone might be more important than entering one

S  L  O  W    C  H  I  L  D  R  E  N  written inside a yellow cautionary street sign

                                                                                                    he didnt care for that message it reminded him of retarded childrenof his kid brother

he was grateful that leaving a school zone wasnt minimised

                                                                a child is less apt to be wild and woolly heading to school than turned loose afterwards  their time-served behind them

he could barely make out the red beanie just visibly over the top of the metal canister Ah solved the circular and box dilemma

crossing behind the canister he looked again

                                                he saw the yellow lettering  S  L  O  W

Ah this iteration had dropped the red pennant it held in its hands that he witnessed earlier the pennant replaced with a bouquet – bookay  as he saw written on a flower shop window leaving Atascadero – a bouquet of colourful plastic flowers  kellygreen stems and narrow leaves which prior the only places aside from craft stores and dimestores that hed seen them in were cemeteries left by mourners who attended graves perhaps visiting only rarely

                                                                                                           though to be fair he could imagine cemetery administrations probably now had hard fast rules about decorating graves rules meant to minimise them from having to maintain graves lazy muthafuckers he remembered as a boy planting fresh flowers spending afternoons having lunches from picnic baskets  visiting dead relatives  ahwell  class and style have long left other aspects of modern life so there was no sense that cemeteries maintain them either

he remembered someone sayhe couldnt remember who that headstones no longer could be erect rather laid lownestled in the earth so lawnmower blades could pass over them

S  L  O  W

                  go slow  maybe go slow because children today are too deficienttoo lacking commonsense that they wouldnt recognise a car could kill them or S  L  O  W because so few children walk to and fro school anymore  or perhaps drivers are negligent or too wrapped up in their heads to actually see a child that ran out into the road ahead of them 

      he had picked up many dead animals off of streets killed by vehicles

 3 of 3

         case closed

now onto the next selection that begged him to notice

a woman in a second storey window began to disrobe . . .  

        

0800-ish,  Monday,  14  10. 19

1245,  Sunday,  12  4. 20

Sinatra  Pocketful of Miracles  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbbtAMzr3dc