Waiting and Dreaming
by Odin Roark

Most walk among us unrecognized;

Hairdressers primping in the confection machine mirror.
Tae-bo junkies side-stepping along the platform punching their imaginary opponent.
Wannabe Dwayne The Rock Johnson doing his hourly pushups.
An obvious mental case sticking matches to his imaginary fire.
The blind veteran singing “God Bless America.
A goth of green, purple, black and orange decor
dreams her own kind of hope with a frozen smile.
A pharmacist twitches uncomfortable among the scarries,
while a father and child hold tight their hands.

Having seen it all tenfold, a grinning observer sits on a bench,
glancing up now and then from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.”

The one unoccupied bench invites an obvious plain-clothes cop to take a seat
along with the pacing and bitching waiter counting his meager tips.

A homeless man shuffles from one end of the waiting area to the other,
his face shadowed by a beat up fedora, reciting Fellini lines to anyone who’ll listen.

A gluttonous rat emerges from the darkness,
stops, retreats back into the distance
where an array of light bulbs swing…“Show Time.”

The subway pushes more air as it emerges from the other end of the tunnel into the platform area,
the light bulbs bounce crazily in the otherwise darkened tunnel,
giving the rat some vermin style entertainment.

The train finally coming to a stop.

The platform people step aboard,
unaware this is but tonight’s wait and dream episode,
another delusion on loan…

until tomorrow night and the next love offering is presented again.