The Light Rail and Love on a Distant Wednesday Night #Poetry by Austin Davis

THE LIGHT RAIL AND LOVE
ON A DISTANT WEDNESDAY NIGHT
POETRY BY
AUSTIN DAVIS

You fell asleep in my arms
on the 11 o’clock train
as the tipsy college girls
who cried during the JT concert
mingled with the drunk business guys
who spit during the D-backs game.

The nervous small talk about
who would be sleeping with who
later that night lulled you to sleep
like sad music, your curly head cradled
between my chest and shoulder,
cold feet balancing on my legs.

The back of the train began to grow
blue as the man standing by row 18
passed around his liquor along with
the sweaty twitch in his eye. A girl
with melted mascara started fanning
herself with a bundle of napkins

and the lights to my left flickered
in its language. The cops standing guard
put their badges in their pockets,
the men put their hats in their bags
and the women undid their ponytails.

The whole train shimmied
into their synthetic smiles; all
sick and frail. You sniffled,
pulling yourself closer to my neck
to kiss me softly in your sleep.

Without you, my life would
just be the kind of dream
where someone is whispering
but it’s not for me to hear.

PURCHASE CLOUDY DAYS, STILL NIGHTS

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