an old light blue slug bug

(and i mean old

like 20 or 30 years)

waits at the lights on sacramento

hoping to cross fillmore

if this light will ever change

moving back and forth

over the thick white line

that is supposed to separate

cars waiting at the light

from pedestrians crossing

the slug bug moves

back and forth like this

i presume because

its transmission is manual

unable to press on the brake

i don’t know

how manual works

owing to this bug

being older than me

having grown up with automatic

and never learned manual

like my dad told me

now far away from that

watching this

through the window

of the coffee shop

where i work on my laptop

more modern than my dad ever imagined

watching the manual transmission slug bug

through the window