Metropolitan Cummuting

A poem about the drudgery of city life

7:45 am

I wake

another middle class bad mood

pour some coffee

google some news

then off

to work off

these midweek blues

but nothing improves

mayhem at the metro

morning migration

flocks of grey stress

and collective migraine

all wishing to be somewhere else

with someone else - anything

but here again

each face

stranger than the next

as we unceremoniously

push and shove the other

squeezing into carriages

already overcrowded

my blood pressure rouses

inside, feeling more

like a statistic

another cog in the wheel of ‘progress’

cramped

movement amputated

i retract

assess the mob

of course

avoiding eye contact

yet glad

in some unsocial way

how pleasantries have become taboo

no ‘hi’s’, no ‘how are you’s’

among metropolitan commuters

sharing little more in common

other than

this stuffy air

i close my eyes, trying mentally

to escape

voluntary confinement

a mechanical purgatory

somewhere between

point A and point B

the story of my life

i tear

my first beads of sweat

as behind me

someone keeps sneezing on my neck

i do wish he’d cease

only one sick day left

i’ve been preserving for my

silver anniversary

final stop

brief relief

the carriage door slides open

like some greyhound starting gate

as we push and shove the other

with such frantic haste

rushing off towards

our dead-end jobs

but again

5 minutes late

my boss has a field day

getting off on his petty power trip

shouts me down infront of all

spraying spit

all over my face

saying nothing

i just focus on his nostril hairs

knowing i’m expendible

knowing someone else is out there

younger, smarter than myself,

i swallow pride for my family’s sake

at my desk

working hard

searching desperately for a queen of hearts

to crack this solitaire

distracted

by a blue plastic bag

whirling in a dervish dance

mid sounds of a traffic jam

so that’s what freedom looks like...

5:01 pm

home

just a metro ride away

Reviews

[Tom McRoberts]

Ugh, wish this wasn't so damn true. Was on the Tube today and in hindsight I almost feel your poem about battery farming was equally relevant to the experience!

[thewholesoul]

cheers tom, and yes, its very hard to deny or ignore the comparison between factory farming and modern day servitude for the wage slave. be well my friend

[Vishuddha]

Devastating. Way too true, way too real. Really well done.

[thewholesoul]

thank you very much indeed Vishudda, love your name by the way.

[Vishuddha]

In "Kundalini Yoga" Vishuddha is the fifth chakra, the throat chakra, or wheel of energy, and it is the center of authentic self-expression. This chakra contains a faculty of higher discrimination and here one literally purifies language, knowledge and communication. Vishuddha means “purification” and perhaps your "saint" means one who is pure? I did not take on this name to be pure or saintly. I use it because it reminds me I write because of my need to strengthen my own self-expression and it helps me to be secure with my own words. In my life I am quiet and shy and can never think what to say until the moment is past.

[marcus]

I hate the subway!!!
Ironic that city's are synonymous with progress, and yet they are becoming more and more unlivable!
So called economic progress is causing us all to live in cages of concrete.

[Vishuddha]

In the past cities were the future. In the future cities will be the past. We need them less and they are crumbling. The future is digital not brick and mortar. If you don't believe me, ask Amazon.

[thewholesoul]

well said, marcus and vishudda, it is starting to dawn on people how cities are not that great to live in. humanity has been removed from the countryside and sustainable living to utter dependency within the cities where many children believe that eggs come from supermarkets! whether intentionally or not, we have been disconnected from nature in these artificial environments. many people includign myself are heading out to the countryside, although i feel the future is green and future cities will be transformed with urban garden s and vertical gardens. take care and best wishes