When traffic stood still

I was crossing down a boulevard so wide, Three lanes rolling on each side, Rails in the middle, cold and steel, A place where rushing engines used to feel Like they owned the road, like they’d never slow, Like the city beat was all they’d ever know. [Pre-Chorus] Light turned green, I walked my line, Stepped across those tracks in time, Reached the button, glanced to see— The storm I knew so well chase me. [Chorus] But nothing came, no roaring sound, No racing wheels, no chaos around, They stood so still, like they’d been told, A hundred engines, quiet, controlled. And I don’t know why it felt so strange, Watching wild hearts suddenly change, They used to fight, they used to run— Now they just wait for the light to turn. [Verse 2] I remember days on painted lines, Waiting out those endless drives, Drivers passing, eyes ahead, Like no one saw the path I tread. No signal there, just hope and chance, A silent plea in every glance. [Pre-Chorus] But now the rules had found their place, A red line drawn they wouldn’t chase, And all that fury, all that pride— Was frozen fifty meters wide. [Chorus] Yeah, nothing moved, no rebel sound, No spinning tires tearing ground, They stood like children in a row, Obeying something they don’t know. And I don’t know why it pulled at me, That sudden calm, that symmetry, They used to burn, they used to roar— Now they don’t fight the light no more. [Bridge] Maybe I liked them a little wild, A little reckless, undefined, A little danger in their way, Like they might break the rules someday. But standing there, so still, so tame— I almost missed their stubborn flame. [Final Chorus] Now silence hums where noise would be, A quiet kind of victory, But in that pause, I felt a loss— Of something raw beneath the gloss. They used to live, they used to dare, Now discipline hangs in the air, And I walked on… but turned to see— The wild ones weren’t as wild as me.