BY ERIN JAMIESON
Copyright is held by the author.
5:20pm, On the “L”
The taste is the same
cigarette ash & perspiring bodies
leather of old briefcases
you slip, unnoticed in the back
the seat still warm from the last
passenger, and you think you will
not be the last, think of your body
warming for another after you leave
5:22
in fifteen minutes you will be
home, stirring soup for your
wife, who was due a week ago
& worries you will be away when
the baby comes
5:23
and passes
slowly, as if bracing for
but you don’t know and maybe it is
the lack of food in your stomach or
the longing in your throat
a need to be somewhere where
you are something more than a body
travelling from one place to the next
5:24
minutes straining to read the paper,
disappear in the seats
lurching, definitely breaking
for nothing for what someone screaming
or laughing you can’t
5:24
***
Read about the “L” crash in Chicago.
Erin Jamieson (she/her) holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University. Her writing has been published in over 80 literary magazines, including a Pushcart Prize nomination. She is the author of a poetry collection (Clothesline, NiftyLit, Feb 2023). Her latest poetry chapbook, Fairytales, is available from Bottlecap Press. Find her on Twitter @erin_simmer
