Poem – In Transit (By David Russell)

In Transit

 

Unemployed’s tube journey:

For those safe,  definable few minutes there is the duality

Of oneself and the comfort of the seat – the circle;

Seal; it chops perfectly, crossing the antilinear.

 

It induces connexity; the most complete awareness of the toil and monotony which went into making the tube, and the seat inside the train inside the tube, the toil and boredom in which the seat – pitchfork of absorption and repulsion, circulates.

 

One straddles directions like a novice mishandling a catamaran.

 

Unemployment cleans edges and puts the bending glass to the centre, breaks down the circumferences into which one’s parts can blur – raises new, clear bars the other way –  for the world outside is a blasted, blurring circumference.

 

When confronted with the bare four hours, the only certain work, one acts like a man playing with transfers.

 

Peel the paper off the top – sling it; it irks you.

 

But you still like the idea of topness and paperness as something permanent –

Without it, the pretty design will truly go to pot – Being merely liquid.

 

Author Bio:

David Russell was born in 1940. Resident in the UK. Writer of poetry, literary criticism, speculative fiction and romance. Main poetry collection Prickling Counterpoints (1998); poems published in online International Times. Main speculative works High Wired On (2002); Rock Bottom (2005). Translation of Spanish epic La Araucana, Amazon 2013. Romances: Self’s Blossom; Explorations; Further Explorations; Therapy Rapture; Darlene, An Ecstatic Rendezvous (all pub Extasy (Devine Destinies). Singer-songwriter/guitarist. Main CD albums Bacteria Shrapnel and Kaleidoscope Concentrate. Many tracks on You Tube.



This poem is part of the complete collection; Speculum: Collected Poetry and Prose, by David Russell.

View or Download the complete collection here in PDF format.

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