Her blue hat with yellow stripe
logo-emblazoned blue shirt are
but weekdays at 7:49 give or take a few minutes
she begins her duty
sick or queasy or on her period
"All tickets"
not ordinary, but sisterly,
with sturdy arms and impeccable hands
holding the hole punch -- and that ass.
Where had I left off my secret inspection yesterday?
on the second day
she had put any possible indignities aside
perhaps no longer stranger
but fellow traveler
thrown together on a daily journey
May as well accept such modest outrages
indignities among transients
as road-induced travail
on the third day
while taking the ticket her glance lingered
for a second or two
during which we were strangers
who had unexpectedly shared a meal
had fashioned small talk
large enough to offset a brief undressing
On the third day
she told me we were breaking up
that my designs while artfully loyal
were nonetheless prurient
I could not be introduced to family
as the one who had feasted on her shape
with plain and evident zeal
on the fourth day
a poor man's physics took hold
ambitious plans, desire-fueled
xray vision, memory-altering drugs
and secret time-space compartments
kidnap-friendly, forgiving
misdemeanors in SciFi scenes
on the fifth day
A young man who had been a chippendales dancer
came to her defense
"She'll dance when she wishes to dance and not before
but an old man mindful of how few
asses would present themselves
firm lucious watermelons are seasonal"
on the sixth day
she stabbed me with a rapier
saying, as I expired with a gurgle,
"I just wanted to know how it would feel to kill a man"
fellow travelers were forced to step over
my remains, a garish mess on the floor of the train
and responsible for a major decline
in the line's onetime performance for the week
on the seventh day
it was our anniversary
She felt I had seen quite enough
and quite often enough too
she leaned in to nibble my ear
before arching her back
coquettish and efficient
on the eighth day
she wore a translucent skirt
which did not match her uniform at all
but which besides greatly simplifying matters for the inquisitive
turned the tawdry private affair
into performance art
and securing a public crowd into which I could fade
on the ninth day
she did not take my ticket
nor anyone else's ticket
and broke a hundred promises,
transferred to another suburb
where for many years was often heard
telling of the man who loved her ass
on the tenth day
beforen I could expose her ass
she told me that she needed a ride after work
Her mother whose ass was also quite fine
had stage iv colon cancer
her brother had the car, driven Mom to ICU
the passenger seat of my Ford
would labor under the weight of its double burden
on the eleventh day
debate royal ensued
she scored many points
parrying with lists of pointless fetishes
obsessive stalkers,
anatomical diversity,
decried superficiality
and I was to counter with a gene pool argument
but as she strutted magnificently before the jury
my thrust foamed over and spent
before it could begin
On the twelfth day
as her two-word utterances had grown dear
and the pleat in her uniform trousers
splendidly arrayed at the top of each workday
and she had come to anticipate
the harmless idolatry
of the besd drawn by the man in car 7
took her piles and piles of tickets,
artifacts of uncounted drama,
possible teachings of perfect corruption
easy holdingscasual pleasure,
vertical line bisecting the globe
Rubenesque precipice of act,
tiny streamer to be unfurled
in an unrelenting parade