[Intro: spoken, stomp-clap, clean guitar ring] Main and Peach. One light. Stuck on yellow since the storm. County said Tuesday. That was three Tuesdays ago. [Verse 1: rapped, Southern rock pocket, clear diction] Whole town treats it like a handshake now You roll up, you wave, you go, nobody floors it, nobody freezes Mrs. Delgado waves with her coffee and a donut in her teeth Kids on bikes salute like it is a flag they invented Pastor says it is a metaphor. Uncle Ray says it is a lawsuit waiting I say it is the first thing this town agreed on since the water tower color fight Sheriff sits in the lot with a sandwich and watches us practice patience He ticketed exactly one person. Tourist from out of county who honked. We clapped Hardware store put a tip jar by the register labeled light fund It is full of IOUs and one actual twenty from somebody feeling guilty Barber shop window has a countdown in dry-erase that nobody updates Day fourteen got erased by a kid's forehead. We left the smear. History. [Hook: big sung hook, slide guitar answers, stomp-clap] Three-week yellow, wave and go Main and Peach moving slow Caution means we figured it out Ain't a law, just a local vow Three-week yellow, hold the line Small town making its own green light [Verse 2: wryer, more detail] High school painted a mural on the plywood by the hardware store A giant yellow circle that says WE GOT THIS in letterman font Bake sale moved under the light so the cookies could bless the traffic I bought three and got stuck behind a tractor for a full hymn length Somebody started a pool on which day the county truck shows up I put five on never. Ray put ten on Friday. Friday came. Ray ate his hat. Literally. Straw brim. We have photos Mayor gave a speech about community spirit then ran the yellow without waving We parked a cone in his driveway. Friendly cone. Message received Football team started jogging in place at the light for luck before away games They went three and one. Coincidence. Still sacred now Gas station started giving free coffee to anyone who waved first Owner said it was marketing. We said it was theology with caffeine [Bridge: spoken over slide guitar and stomps] Day twenty-two. Bucket truck. Guy in a hard hat looks at the light like it offended his mother. Whole sidewalk goes quiet. [Verse 3: short punchline verse] He flips a switch. Green. Red. Normal again. First car hesitates like it forgot the alphabet Mrs. Delgado waves anyway. Habit. Holy habit I miss the yellow already. Damn. That is a sentence I never thought I would say County sent a survey. How was your wait. I wrote: we were fine. You were late. Driver ed teacher kept using the light as a pop quiz. Wave equals pass. Half the juniors graduated polite. That is a metric the state does not track. [Hook: big sung hook, full band, gang on last lines] Three-week yellow, wave and go Main and Peach moving slow Caution means we figured it out Ain't a law, just a local vow Three-week yellow, hold the line Small town making its own green light [Outro: spoken, guitar fade] Light works. Town works. I still wave at Main and Peach. Old habits. Good ones. Someone mailed the county a postcard of the mural. No return address. Just a yellow circle and a wave.
