If I get lonely
in a big city

I like to ride trains

so that I don’t
feel so static.

I get a ticket for a day
maybe a map
and just sit going back

and forth, round and round
so that I feel like
I’m moving.

In Paris
the metro is always in motion.

And in London
the underground
a place without signal
or speech between strangers

just books and drumbeats
leaking out of headphones

careless commuters.

The circle line
is the best, you don’t even have
to get off

you can just orbit like a planet
the city a sun.

I feel more like a moon.

I don’t take a book
or a pen or a paper

or my mp3
I just soak it in.

The city, through tunnels,
down the escalators
the people rushing
pushing
plodding

and sometimes, if I’m lucky

one family, staring at everything
with wide new eyes

and I see too
the new things

or the old things, new.