Everyday Strange

Everyday strange

On the Blue line.

A man vomiting on the floor,

the train hadn’t left yet.

A man clipping his fingernails.

A man loudly berating his girlfriend

Because the eggs he packed

in his own bag broke.

A man holding an 80’s style boom box

blaring music on an otherwise quiet train car.

A Black woman yelling at a Mexican man

that he should not be wearing his sunglasses  at night

and, that he should not be in America if he can’t speak English.

A man complaining that there are too many immigrants on the train,

he had a large wrench in his hand.

A man singing “La Bamba” for money.

Various people telling their sad stories,

selling candy and trinkets, begging for money.

The train conductor announcing that someone

smelled like cigarette smoke.

Various kinds of body odor and bad breath.

An older Black man yelling at younger Black boys

that they walk like monkeys with their pants hanging low.

An obnoxious teenager staring at me

and asking me to go to the prom with him.
Everyday strange getting stranger everyday.