Forgotten

 

Something forgotten

 

On the way home, waiting on the platform,

I search my book bag for a piece of gum or a mint.

The in-coming train screeches to a stop.

Then over my shoulder a young businessman says,

“Bad Omen; Empty car on a full train!”

I should have known - but I would soon sense

Wet cardboard and over ripe citrus, expired –

Whole cow’s milk and weeks of sweat:

The smell of a city garbage truck

Hitting me in the face as the doors

And the passengers recede

To our corners -

Each to our respectfully far spaces.

The signals snare and chime out of tune

 

The south end of a    Grief inconsolable;

South bound car       Going nowhere;

But I still can’t thank God;                              There was no looking in her eyes.

For in the north corner                                  She sits staring down

In a pile of countless shopping bags,                 Like a build-up of grime

Is the smell of neglect,                                   Caught in a corner

The smell of abandonment,                             Crumpled or kicked to the curb;

The putrefaction of human potential                Motionless.

Where is that gum?    Hiding in plain sight?

The signals snare and chime out of tune

                              In the manufactured corner of a sphere

                              Matter & love once sparked to life

                              Subsist amongst so many bags of trash

A young & overweight-

Rude girl is between us;                                 The signals snare and chime out of tune

She keeps darting her eyes;                            Where is my home?

Toward the corner.

With several uncomfortable giggles,                  

As if at a party; and we might think                 It's self abandonment  

it was her.

Motion aggravates the stagnant smell.             It's too much!

At every stop a reminder of the hopelessness, the utter hopelessness

The signals snare and chime out of tune.         The signals snare and chime out of tune.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This an experimental piece designed to be read by two people.
The second column should be read as a continuation of the first reader's line.
And the last lines of each column should be read together.