Eric Beeny

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The infants stood in a circle for almost an hour around a ONE WAY sign someone ran over who knows when, staring at it like a dead animal.

They weren’t sure if it was dead.

They poked it with a stick.

It might as well’ve been a DEAD END sign, like the one at the other end of their street.

The infants had nowhere else to go, to be.

Someone ran over the ONE WAY sign with their car, just ran it over and then drove away.

Someone, they guessed, who had somewhere else to go, to be.

The ONE WAY sign didn’t get back up.

It just lay there at the living end of their little street, its aluminum head flattened into the dirt of a dead patch of grass.

It was just lying there, bent over at the bottom of its stem.

Maybe it was just them, the infants, but the sign looked like a rusted sunflower some big giant stepped on.

Maybe it was just them, but the sign didn’t get back up.

They figured it was dead.

They thought of this thing, this ONE WAY sign, as something meant to perform a function, as something communicating an idea, a philosophy that would guide people in their lives, other people, people who had somewhere else to go, to be.

Somewhere else they didn’t.

Not to ignore its place in the world, not to downplay the sign’s purpose, they wondered how the sign felt expressing a message no one who came down their street could understand until they came to the DEAD END sign at the other end, where no one could turn back to correct no one’s mistake.

So, for almost an hour, they stood in a circle around the ONE WAY sign.

One of the infants lifted one of their heads, his own head, and looked over the others’ shoulders to see if no one else was coming.

The boy looked back down at the sign.

None of the other infants noticed him looking.

The infants were all alone, had nowhere else to go, to be.

They stood around staring at a dead ONE WAY sign.

The infants couldn’t read the sign.

They poked it with a stick.

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Eric Beeny’s poems and stories have appeared in The 2nd Hand, Abjective, Corduroy Mtn., Dogzplot, elimae, Quercus Review, Willows Wept Review, Word Riot, and others. He’s a contributing editor for Gold Wake Press. His blog is Dead End on Progressive Ave.