The Waiting Place

An excerpt from Dr. Seuss' book,  Oh, The Places You Will Go.......which hopefully by now, you've all read.

Of all the places you'll go this is the hardest one for me....



The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.







Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.






Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.


And as he says in an earlier paragraph......."what a useless place."

But I would like to add another place that Dr. Seuss left out.  It belongs here...in the waiting place.  Perhaps at the top of the list.  It's the DMV....Department of Motor Vehicles.  The place that has not evolved at all since it was first established when cavemen invented the wheel.  So if you will, I would like to add a waiting place of my own.....

The day will come when you must go to renew your license to drive on the road. 

So you go to this place, on a beautiful day, to do what you have been told. 

You follow the rules, you follow them well....

But this one you soon realize

 is really just an invitation to Hell.

You see the line out the door at the DMV

And many, many more waiting inside. 

You say to yourself, you say self,  "I can't do this today...

I thought I could, but I lied."

So that date comes around when you go back to do

What any good citizen must do.

You get in that line, that's longer than long 

Because to leave again would be wrong.

All who enter must go into this first line

And you enter at 4:21.

You stay and you stay there until 5:53 

For this line is to check if your eyes can see.

Yes, one line to check if your peepers are good

One line for all that are there.

But at the end of this line they give you a number

And now you can find a chair.

You stare at the people who are staring at you
And you listen to their conversations,
And you realize this group that you're waiting with
Are some very strange homo sapiens.

You wait and you wait in this hard plastic chair

And you wait and you wait and you wait.

Then finally you hear your number called out

And you're told to go to station 8.

And you head to that station with a bounce in your step

Because your waiting is coming to an end.

And you look back at those people behind you and think

For almost two hours, you were my waiting friend.

You get in your car and head out of that place

...that place called the DMV.

And you think this must be how prisoners feel

When they're told they have been set free!

And you grin because you know
it'll be "years"  before you're back

Thank God the DMV was your waiting place...

And not some ditch in Iraq.

~ mizjuney ...who has always loved Dr. Seuss

and knows I can't hold a candle to him ~