Unexpected Genius in a Cab

My car was broken,

it was in the shop

so I called a cab.

Shore Taxi cabs.

I wasn't thinking any

great thoughts that day

about life, just

droning on, waiting

for my class to begin.

I held a blank stare,

pondering silently about

professors

friends

enemies

and what I would like to have for

dinner that night.

 

I got in and sat down

not saying anything besides a 

simple, polite 

"hello".

After a moment,

the cab driver

became explosive,

spouting passionate wisdoms

in a manic way,

never looking at the road,

but rather at me in the back seat.

He kept turning around

excitedly, as though he couldn't get the

words he wanted to express

out fast enough.

His eyes never stopped smiling

and we almost crashed into

a number of cars.

He was beautifully insane

and I couldn't tell whether or not

he knew he was a

genius.

He kept on talking

and talking and

talking,

in that abrasive blue collar way,

shouting his poetry aloud to me,

as though I couldn't hear it,

off a torn piece of composition paper.

I sat with a wide-toothed grin

and listened about how

he runs a website that helps others

get by and how

he always wanted to be a writer, but

no one understood,

and how he has a Bachelors Degree in

Engineering, but prefers

driving the cab, 

making 8 bucks an hour

meeting strangers

and turning them to friends,

that

was more important to him

than engineering or

getting published.

He knew all about Kerouac and

shouted just like him

and probably drank Jack just like him

and wrote haikus just like

him.

 

That day,

I left the cab,

the Shore Taxi,

believing in

miracles.

 

Reviews

[Ashley Armstrong]

I'm surprised no one has reviewed this yet. This was a good story.