Regimentation
In New York on East 53rd Street I saw a fly walking across the street on the green light.
Kay Sage
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
In New York on East 53rd Street I saw a fly walking across the street on the green light.
The speaker spots something tiny and odd on a busy New York street: a fly that seems to be crossing at the proper moment, on the green light. The scene is told as plainly as a news report, with the exact street named and no fuss, and that flat tone is where the humor comes from. A fly can go anywhere it likes, yet here it appears to follow the rules like any pedestrian.
The title, "Regimentation," suggests the real subject. Life in a big city runs on signals, schedules, and orders, and the poem wonders how far that discipline reaches. If even a fly behaves in an orderly way, the system looks either impressively strong or a little ridiculous. The speaker doesn't spell out a feeling, but the mood is dry, amused, and slightly uneasy, as if a small joke were hiding a sharper thought about conformity.