Traffic Department Blues

A long line of people...... Their eyes start to glaze over after an hour, no-one knows exactly what's going on as no-one explains or communicates with the masses..... I watch a young girl walking at a snail's pace, pulling a cleaning cart behind her. Her eyes are much to tired for her age, the place is sucking the energy out of everyone......

I am flanked by two men and they both suffer from severe halitosis which is making my seven hour wait an absolute hell......

Inside the place a group of weary people sit and wait to have their eyes tested in order to obtain a renewal on their driver's license...... there are 6 booths, yet only one person is working.....very slowly...

Another consultant slowly drags herself into the booth, while slurping her coffee and eating her breakfast, which causes a further delay as she sips and chews continuously...... she manages to test her poor victim's eyes and then gets up, yawns, and drags herself out of the room, she disappears for the rest of the day........

I have to use the bathroom... I locate it eventually, a miserable hovel of a building, no locks on the door, filthy inside, and walk into a huge man who tells me that men and women share the toilet......I don't want to die at the Traffic Department in a nightmare bathroom.....


I get back to my seat, and the next thing a belligerent character starts shouting at me for pushing in........ I inform him that I've been there since before 7, but he continuous to yell at me, (at this point I am suffering severe withdrawal symptoms as I stopped smoking...) I eventually lose my temper and shout back at him.
Its horrible........

An old man lights up and I have to forcibly restrain myself from grabbing the cigarette out of his hands....... I contemplate whether I should buy a loose cigarette, and have to immediately visualize myself as a non-smoker........breathe.......water.......breathe.....

My license expired seven months ago.....I didn't realize this fact......I am praying hard that whoever helps me does not insist that I re-do my Learners and Drivers.....at my age.....ridiculous........

I want to complain about the lack of service, but I have to eat humble pie.......I can't afford a fine....

My ID photo is horrendous, I look like a hag, no soft lighting here.........I pay an exorbitant fee to the entrepreneur outside taking ID photos, for the privilege of having this image from hell glued onto my new license.....

Wafts of smoke are driving me crazy......It smells horrible ......water.....breathe........

I am eventually seated inside, as halitosis boy comes to call me......

I land up with a really pleasant lady who tests my eyes, and she tells me I passed the test.

She wants to see my old drivers license and my stomach flips over....
Thank you Lord, she barely glances at it, which means  I will pay the normal price for the document.

A group of people enter the eye-testing room, and the big man that oversees it all tells them to turn around and face the door......'You must leave! Go back to your seats outside, no-one gave you permission to enter here'
The tired group grumble and turn around in shame, they leave and some people start to snigger....
An obese man devours a few packets of chips, he gobbles it up and there is chip shrapnel everywhere..

Breathe........water..........

There are no windows .....a faulty florescent light flickers insanely, which causes my eyes to start burning.
I feel very sorry for anyone who suffers from epilepsy..

I start to compose a blues song in my head, I want to wail in despair. It won't help.

I stand in another que for an hour, waiting to pay.

Hell is indeed alive and well on Earth.

Spreading the Love more than ever and so very grateful that I don't work there.