day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY TWO

Sir

This right here, sir
is why I don’t take a seat on the trains
not because I’m not tired
because I am
and not because my feet don’t hurt
because they do
but because every time I do
take a seat on the train
an elderly person gets on
like what happened today
so I get up
and touch her elbow
and say,
Do you want to sit down?
and then you, sir,
appear out of nowhere
and have already slipped
into the seat
that I was offering
so I say
Sir, that was,
stammering,
that seat was for
her
but you don’t move
for a beat
until the woman next to you
says
Oh she can sit here
and then
you, sir
are embarrassed
and get up
and pass me
hissing

Fucking Jewish Bitch

and I’m too dumbstruck
to respond
not even with a fuck you
or something far more witty
in fact all I can think
as you disappear into the train crowd
and the old woman
sits down
is that I really regret ever
calling you

Sir.

--Ally Malinenko