invisibility in public places

we are all on the train together, jostled, sleepy, and caught up in wires that dangle and get caught in things at the worst time. 

which train did you ride today?

i rode the train that smelled of chloroform and human excrement. 

Perhaps, we should knock ourselves out with chloroform for the ride to work. 

you may get smart and say that chloroform has no odor and i'll say i'm a poet so i can say anything i want. . . it is my little Atlantis, this writing thing.

so we have invisibility in public places plugged into our computers and music

we don't notice the Chinese woman clipping her nails with her head down to avoid having to apologize to anyone she strikes with her projectiles

we don't notice the teenage girl with a furious grimace who seems determined to stay on the prison track on which she was placed long ago

we don't notice the homeless man who sings 1960s songs in a powerful booming voice that can be heard over the trains screeches and roars

he made you never want to hear those songs again

yes, there are many things to not notice, to not color in with adjectives or fancy colored pencils.

we internalize all these things and rarely glance up.

i rode the train twice today and both times, i wanted to be alone in bed listening to blues without having to see it.