Some days I felt like parading
Sticking out my chest
Proudly displaying my colors
Feathers splayed
Fresh pair of sneakers
Dope new mohawk
Puffy from last night's workout
Blood moving
As youthful as I can be
For a kid in his thirties
Ever a stranger
Highlighted hair
Blown out one day
Permed the next
Cute little hip-hugger outfit
One day
Some kind of hippie frock
The next
Always tied in
To some kind of magazine look
Stranger reverted
Still moving around
Out east
New faces
Mostly exhausted
A slow trickle
No young ones
Peers that might understand
The trials and shortcomings
Of a mid-life crisis
Or at least
A post somebody complex
Turned nobody depression
Where are the artists
And why doesn't anyone speak
To each other?
Revered stranger
An unforeseen return
I've never lived anywhere
Twice
Same platform
Back to my old tricks
With my shocking application
Of backwards fashion
A statement that is
Barely a statement
Which aims to say
Fuck you
Even to the world of fashion
Which is hard to do
Since their control of industry
Can only be manipulated
By mixing up looks
From past
Present
And future
A fine line
Between understated assimilation
And pure mockery
Same stranger
I recognize the polished look
The finesse
The vogue
The body shop
The ten looks for less
And I am now
So much better
At the ignoring game
Which is learned behavior
For most railroad patrons
Because no one likes a talker
Or god forbid
A friendly stranger
The last respected boundary
Our invisible line
That separates my serbia
From your croatia
And while I find it ridiculous
I also prescribe to it
Because no one like an angry mob
Except the movies
All my questions
Despise for this system
Confusion with the perimeters
And lines in the sand
Soon became projected
On this one stranger
This one girl
With the magazine look
I even sat next to her
Once or twice
On the train
I may have even said
God bless you
When she sneezed
Or actually
Now that I think about it
Someone else did
And why double bless
Especially when someone else
Might think she's a pretty girl
And they always get the god bless yous
And I hate that
So give her a single
And let some reject
Have his moment
To share a smile
With this overdone stranger
All primped and dolled
She'll never smile back anyway
Because there is some air
She holds
Above most
Maybe she breathes it
To get high
On herself
A vicious cycle
I begin to laugh
When I see her on the platform
Somewhat disgusted
At what I have become
One of the ghosts
Not my usual
Modus operandi
Which is
To break down walls
And free the spirits
Locked inside
A fearful and protected
Exterior
I kind of hate her
Then one day
I see she's pregnant
And I can't hate anyone
Who is carrying a child
Into work each day
Puking for lunch
And counting the days
Until maternity leave
Still hanging on
To her favorite jeans
In case she returns
To a manageable shape
But it's kind of fun
Buying all those new clothes
To fit the new protrusion
Forever strangers
I told my wife the story
And she suggested I bring the girl flowers
Which why I adore my wife
But decided that story
Might be hard to explain
To her husband
Which she certainly has
And the following days might be awkward
But then again
Depending on what the future holds
It could make the next few decades
Less strange
As we grow old
Together
But certainly apart
As strangers
On a platform
Waiting for a train
--
4.17.08
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