The Subway Never Sleeps: Gabriel B.

2/3 train, April 2014
Look carefully at the photos. Can you see that the notebook is not the same? Do not be mad. Sometimes a person only has one stop. If they say they really want to do it later, I take a picture. But I remain skeptical. Most do not. Gabriel seemed inclined. He wrote one and emailed it promptly. I’ve noticed that the poems done after the encounter can get overwritten. Gabriel followed the rules and wrote it on the train. He blogs about New York on The Wandering Humorist – and is a writer/director/photographer who holds a day job at A & E, working as a staff assistant editor.

The subway never sleeps!
A gift of the 19th century
No cell service here
No social media to get us connected.
We meet the old fashioned way
I spoke to a model about NYC politics
A deaf Russian illustrator once drew me
I’ve laughed with twins, three times around
And I’ve talked with a half mad man
I’ve seen it all: poverty and despair
But there’s always another surprise
All together on a hurtling machine
The subway teaches us
How to be equal again

Read a poem by Alina P.