March 09, 2004

sub-Verse

crash thru the darkness
I watch
commuter apparition rituals,
reflected on the windows
facing anywhere
but your face:

here, the children
learn to read thru
ads for hand sanitizer
& debt relief..

many hands, empty,
fumbling with their
identities in shopping bags &
briefcases

vacancies in our vision
filled by Rapid Ad Movement
delay delayed
quoth the loudspeaker,
"emergency crews dispatched"

stovepipe-hatted men declare
"that one contagious derelict
on the union platform
has damned you all
with spewed forth
infective --
how many tomorrow
will be 'jumpers' as a result?"

"remain calm" the men say..

but the derelict knows
the somethyme elegance
of children smirking
at the unimpressed business-
men will save us, even
as he begs for your change

(parentheses mark
peristalsis of thyme
between stops)

sardine-shapen shot out
haggard, flustered
from the intestinal metropolis
we moles with shrinking downcast eyes
step thru the hardened arteries
of jagged vying elbows..

we traverse our underground
railroad, only
with no end in sight --
tomorrow we return
to the gears of our misery --

we tired laboured
leave dirt smears on the
hand rails;
look closer &
see the blood
left by
the fearful ones that own you

they fear because
they know
the meaning of
another blackout

when power
is
dis-
solved..

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