I used to endure the bus alone.
Leather seats towered
over me as I huddled in the corner,
as close to the window as possible.
I stared
at the scenes traveling
past the glass,
covered in the thinnest layer of grime. My mind
was nearly detached from my body, and
I must have seemed quite vacant.
My lips
moved for no one. The beastly
voices kept me from floating out into the images flitting
in front of my eyes like a reel.
The voices
of those who harmed, the voices
of the rough and unwise. The voices
of the uncontrolled. There were idiots, as
far as I was concerned. Their eyes
did not shine even scarlet with
passion,
but were dull with hunger.
I despised them.
Every mindless
word that dropped
from their mouths was deplorable,
while their conduct
was still more awful.
The self-made vow
of silence
separated me from them.

EMERGENCY EXIT: PULL UP AND PUSH OUT

The words bold and deadpan printed upon the window
to my soul.
I so longed to push the bar up, show the window out of the way and spring myself into the space between motion and stillness. To kick
the crude yellow world behind me and enter a
tranquility.
This desire was vivid in my mind as I found myself admiring the subtle curve
of the crimson handle,
the idea of landing on asphalt afterwards absent
from my mind.