Subway Sonnet

My writing, the poetry I mean, has been going through kind of a slump lately.  A lot of great ideas hanging dormant in the foggy, cannabis scented corridors of my mind, but not too much actually getting committed to paper.  That must change.

The Sharp Edge of Town

Anyway, here’s one I wrote about a week ago.  The inspiration was walking out of the Metro at Letnany, which is kind of weird because it’s the final station, I catch a bus from there out to the burbs for my kiddie classes on Friday, and when you come out of the Metro, on your left, there is a big cornfield.  One side of the road is urban sprawl, the other side is not urban at all.  So, the original thought was kind of a city/country contrast, but that’s not how it came out.  This could be about any metro station anywhere.  Just as well.  It’s a pretty good poem, I think.  I like it, anyway.

The world comes into focus upside down

revealed in steps, each step along the way

as we exit from the underground

and step into the lucid light of day

First, the sky above comes into view

some days it’s blue, some days it’s sullen gray

when we come out at night, the stars shine through

like signals from a billion miles away

Then, the buildings – first, the upper floors

then the rows of windows moving down

finally, the sidewalks and the doors

then we’re back on the surface, back in town

As we move from point to point, it’s not so strange

at certain points, our point of view will change