I miss my turn,
and now I’m sitting at a red light,
in the left-hand turning lane
on Sunrise Highway in Lynbrook,
at Christmastime.

The wind is buffeting
the “NO U-TURN” sign.
I have to make a left,
find a place to turn around,
and come back to make a right.

The sign shakes angrily in the wind,
as if to reinforce its authority.

My eye follows the pole it’s bolted to
down to the ground where two
frostbitten bouquets of flowers
droop to where they are
plugged into the earth.
with plastic hypos.

The only flowers still bristling with life
are plastic red carnations,
encircling the word “DAD” spelled out
in stiff white Styrofoam.