3 train Fulton to 72nd Street, Monday January 25th
Very few seconds went by between my spotting him, determining that he had a poem, and asking. He said “yes” right away. Maybe it was the fun coat and hat, or the fact that he looked incognito? Or that we shared a brief look of “too bad” when one grumpy passenger began cursing at another. He’s a song writer and part of the band Rubycon, described on their Website as: “…a cunning band of thieves, with eyes for rubies in the rough” “Known in the imaginations of the young for prophetic lyrics, melodic synergy, and fat, bouncy beats, Rubycon plucks glistening gems from the bosom of reality and proffers them up to the world. Come one come all to celebrate in your most outlandish finery, and trust that you will be at home among the freaks.”
He said that he began the poem with free writing and then moved into something he was thinking about for a song. I was struck by the last line. Inside of my brain and backpack is the poem Zangezi by Velimir Khlebnikov, with my favorite line: “And a ZA-ZA of delights – her eyes.”
Sandy ride
Salt & fluids
sticky floor ding dong
box a box cart
break beat buckets
and transfeeders
Oh how I love riding the subway
I get to watch those beautiful
strangers
lugging leather balancing
bicycles
reading books and modern
devices
Oh how I love riding the Z
train
za za za za za za za
za za za