I ask you a detailed question and your answer is simply No. I laugh hard and try again. This time it’s Yes. You have a gap between your teeth, a belly that rests on the counter. I type in my pin code and you make enquiries about my afternoon. You speak in haiku so I respond in kind. Train northbound waiting, delayed inevitably – by wind or else rain. We try again. I squeeze in a long word where a short would do. I take my ticket. It is finally Friday and I am thinking of words or else sleep.
Posts Tagged ‘tube’
Day 88
Posted in Age: 41-50, Gender: Male, Location: Public Transport, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, friday, gemma seltzer, haiku, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, strangers, tube, writing on February 26, 2010| 1 Comment »
Day 86
Posted in Age: 31-40, Gender: Male, Location: Outside/Street/Park, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, gemma seltzer, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, strangers, tube, umbrella, writing on February 24, 2010| 1 Comment »
Umbrellas become weapons as we fight to the tube station. You elbow me as you pass and I square up, ready to fight. You say, What? I say, What? and we stare and we pause and you flick water in my eyes. I take each of my gloves, roll them together into a ball and aim at your nose. You see my arm draw back, raise an eyebrow and kick me in the knees. Today was going to be a fine day, a light day. As I lay on the ground; many people avoid me, many people try to help.
Day 78
Posted in Age: 41-50, Gender: Male, Location: Public Transport, tagged briefcase, buggy, city, conversations, creative writing, gemma seltzer, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, strangers, tube, writing on February 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A woman jams her buggy into the right hand side of the escalator, trying to manoeuvre the lumbering bulk alongside a series of unyielding bodies. You smile at the child strapped in, opening and closing its fists. Hello, you say as you walk pass. Hello, hello, as you march down the steps. The air in the tube station is thick. You have a briefcase, swing it as you saunter. I’m behind you, direct you to a train. Then the baby comes by again and we say, Goodbye, goodbye. The mother is unaware, busy wheeling her child through streets of people.
Day 75
Posted in Location: Public Transport, tagged city, conversations, creative writing, ee cummings, gemma seltzer, literature, london, One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person, Saturday, strangers, tube, writing on February 13, 2010| 2 Comments »
I walk to and from the station, carrying nothing but a sensation of calm, like a rucksack of cool, a handbag of something like relaxation. It’s Saturday and I’ve been in good company. I see you, buying a croissant; a chewing bovine, you. Here, you are waiting watch-watching, then no longer alone. You are shouting on your telephone, such a pretty toy. I see you there, bitterness at your daughter. And you, fingers gripping fresh flowers, expression glazed. I speak to none of you today, but I rise up and watch. To these little things, I will always be open.
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