April 30: In a Metro Station (Washington D.C.) by Mitchell L.H. Douglas
April 29, 2012In a Metro Station (Washington, D.C.) Even the Angels mock you, your drunken hopscotch in the well of the tracks. Gasps win over silence on your first dive, gleam of…
In a Metro Station (Washington, D.C.)
Even the Angels mock you,
your drunken hopscotch
in the well of the tracks.
Gasps win over silence
on your first dive, gleam
of your bald head a pointer
to disaster. Relief
comes when you ascend
the center platform,
but seeing you dive again
into the depths of the track before me
brings cries of disbelief,
like you’re a glutton for death—
as if it’s not enough
you cheated once.
Leaving the third rail hungry,
you rise
w/ the casual air
of a wader in pool,
a bird from bath,
the platform @ my feet
the wet bough. You
stumble right
after the woman
who fueled the risk,
& the Angels shake their heads,
adjust red berets
as the green line arrives
on time.
—Mitchell L.H. Douglas (Marion County)
Mitchell L. H. Douglas is the author of Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem and the forthcoming blak al-fə bet, winner of the 2011 Persea Books Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor’s Choice Award. He is a Cave Canem fellow, cofounder of the Affrilachian Poets, and Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.