I love the community that takes place aboard subways.
Like a starbucks almost (but not quite as appealing to the senses)
Everyone is antisocial, but in community
Aside from a few “scuse me’s” and grunts
communication is all body language and eye contact
It’s funny, and creepy most times
Today I hopped on to a J train
headed back to my "headquarters" in Queens
The empty seats filled up so fast
that I immediately looked for a pole to grab on to.
A scruffy larger man caught my attention with a head nod
and motioned me over to sit next to him.
I might've declined if I would have known he could hardly make room
enough for one of my bum cheeks
between him and a red-haired woman
dressed in all black & deep maroon-polished fingernails..
But alas, I already left the security of my pole
The woman looked perturbed by his offer to me but she inched over
and gave me a bit more room anyway
Sweet. It’s been a long day and I’m tired,
so I don’t hesitate to sit with my headphones in
and my thigh resting against the burly man who half-offered me his seat
He's dozing off now
I take in my surroundings. The passengers’ expressions;
most of them are in a trance, staring into nothing
One of them is talking fast into a cell phone in something-not-English
Someone is going off about a so-and-so who made them upset in some way
And every once in a while a (lucky) candidate gives way to my stare
but they avert their eyes and so do I, when we realize we’re looking at each other
Things could get awkward otherwise.
I don’t know anything about any of them
what they’ve done or where they’re going when they exit the J train.
But what re-surfaces in my thoughts is that the big burly man
who offered me a seat
is next to me for 10 minutes,
and then he’s gone..
and so are all of them.
