Jonathan McKeown
Oedipus at the Traffic Lights
We are as much strangers in nature as we are aliens from God. We do not understand the notes of birds …
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature.
Stopped at the traffic lights this morning – on my way to get a blood test—I find myself in a front row seat: a staccato series of hurrying mechanical bleeps begins as the pedestrian light turns green. Two elderly women enter from the wings. Signs of their decrepitude evident as each steps from the kerb and begins to cross from opposite sides of the street. One carrying a shopping bag hooked on her arm; the other, a little stooped, pulls a two-wheeled trolley-bag. Coming into greetable range the corners of their eyes wrinkle to crow’s feet as their mouths form knowing smiles, as if sharing some secret, but neither speaks…
a falling frangipani flower answering a distant currawong’s cry
About the Author
Jonathan McKeown lives near Cook’s River in Sydney and enjoys the privilege of being a part of this world. He works as a plumber and loves reading a wide range of literature. His poems have appeared in leading journals over the past decade and in 2022 he published his first book of haibun and haiku, Genesis (Red Moon Press).