Watching a Woman on the M101 Express by Kamilah Aisha Moon
You sit in a hard blue seat, one
of the ones reserved for the elderly
or infirm, a statue of need. Your mouth
open as if waiting for water or medicine, as if
mugged mid-sentence, or some ice age hit
right after terrible news.
Oblivious to the Metro’s bump and buck,
to the toddler begging in Spanish to be freed
from her stroller, to my ogling, you sit
embalmed, raccooned or moosed. You have
the kind of eyes that never quite close,
even in deepest sleep, lids
an undersized t-shirt that leaves belly
exposed. Tears navigate moles, veteran
swimmers of your creek-bed face.
I can’t stop looking. You can’t get over
whatever has happened, so shell-shocked
that birds could land and roost. I want to ask—
just so you know someone
is paying attention, but not enough
to know what ravages. It’s rude
to stare. I’m from the South, a suburb
where Grief pulls the shades first,
stays home if indecent. But
your sorrow struts four rows down
from me, strands you an astronaut
on some distant, undiscovered moon.
Bodies to your left and right read papers,
nap, send text messages. You sit in a hard
blue seat, mouth open. I study the pink
of your jaw, and wonder if you’ll come back
before your stop comes.
Art by Eva Törnwall-Collin
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