Amber

In school you learn about the traffic lights

Green, yellow, red

Go, slow down, stop

Though yellow was always called amber

And I never understood why

It was clearly just yellow

Why does it need a fancy word when red and green are stuck with red and green

But I've worked it out now

I've gotten the joke-

For traffic lights

amber means slow because

Amber is slow

Slow like resin oozing from trees

Slow like resin solidifying

Slow like fossilisation

Slow like amber preserving bugs and plants and DNA for thousands of years

Millions

Life and living

The most solid form of memory

The most tangible slice of time

To be held and watched and kept safe

To have both happened and be happening

Time is so slow

Slow like

The lights outside guiding the drunk and tired home

From green and movement and red and heat and blue and music and chatter

The amber street lamps

Slowly

Illuminating the streets

Softening the edges

Slowly

Seeping into my garden

Into the only outside that’s mine

I meet amber

Slowing me down

Slowing everything down

So slow this has already happened

and will happen again