Tuesday, June 10, 2014

poem of the day 06.10.14


d train: hell is thy name

after work
there is mahler’s 10th waiting for me

but there is also this guy
at the 25th 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 10th 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 10th waiting for me

and a train delay at 79th 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 10th

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 10th play

as if it were the only unabated sound.

                                                           

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