poem of the day 06.10.14

d train: hell is thy name

after work

there is mahler’s 10^th waiting for me

but there is also this guy

at the 25^th avenue stop

shouting into his little device

he’s running at it full throttle

whomever is on the other end is not

getting a word in edgewise

as if he weren’t bad enough

there are a pack of teenagers

throwing tennis balls up and down the train car

blasting rap beats out of cell phones

and flinging fast food pickles

against the scratched windows

and there is mahler’s 10^th waiting for me

only some kid starts crying

and his mom threatens to beat the shit out of him

which is nice

it’s a small courtesy

even though he doesn’t stop

but can she get the guy on the cell phone too?

the teenagers with their pickles and tennis balls?

maybe just the bitch whose sitting next to me

eating god knows what

that stinks like a dirty asshole baking in the sun

yet there is mahler’s 10^th waiting for me

and a train delay at 79^th street

so that new york’s finest can do a sweep of the d train

looking for international terrorists or another wallet thief

or to just harass an old woman by searching her bag

still

there is mahler’s 10^th

and the hope that some plague will strike this train

and infect this miserable city

one small, harmless genocide

or a meteorite will hit

wiping out a good four million of us in one blast

the guy on the phone and the teenagers

with the pickles and tennis balls

half of that dirty asshole baking in the sun

the wailing child

the cops and the thief

the old lady

a few of my neighbors

a plethora of barking dogs

that customer who is always telling me to smile

me

you

us

whatever it takes for christ’s sake

to let mahler’s 10^th play

as if it were the only unabated sound.