The pink traffic lockbox
clucks every few seconds.

Perhaps it is upset
that somebody scrawled over it in white paint:
“KILL CITY”.

It is a property of the city.
It serves the people
with its metal pushbutton
well
why is there a call for its head?

It is nailed to the lamppost.
It clucks because it can not run away
from the dangerous
Destroyers of Pink!
Destructors of LockBoxes!
The NYC Night Pillagers.

The lockbox
would prefer a pillow
to a pillage
because it gets kinda sleepy
clucking for us all day.

It drips onto the sidewalk
wetting itself
in fright for
what the night
brings.

It would sleep,
but it is afraid
of those who
might get angry
and punch the trembling lockbox in frustration
while they wait for the light to change
so they can cross the street
where the lockbox’s forest green neighbor roosts.