Christmas in a Subway Car
by Janet I. Buck
High heels click against concrete
and no one stops.
Cell phones, beepers ride the hips;
purses bulge from under coats.
Streetlights lay their ribbons down;
smiles appear like paper torn.
Scents of diesel choke the moon.
I see it hiccup through the clouds.
Perhaps it is no longer white.
The only constancy is fear.
This is the city beating its drum.
Eyes retreat to guard what's left
of gardens clinging to their dreams,
retreat into their turtle shells.
Metal, metal rushes on
in robots of a river's wave
without the water meeting thirst.
Windows rattle underground;
strobes appear -- again, again
like little votives for a ghost.
A woman stares at nervous lovers
kissing in the brittle bounce.
First the reach, then the lips
of hit and miss. All in all,
a galaxy is off its feet.
Between the knotted loops and endings,
in those eyes of wanderlust,
chatoyancy of buried stars.
Janet Buck is a five-time Pushcart Nominee and the author of four
collections of poetry. In 2003, her work is scheduled to appear in Zuzu's
Petals Quarterly, Recursive Angel, Moondance, The Montserrat Review,
and dozens of journals world-wide.
Note: Featured
author in January 2001
E-mail: JBuck22874@aol.com
Writing interests: Poetry
Poems: "The
Orphan", "Caught
in Lesser Tragedies", "The
Broken Promise", "The
Gargoyle", "The
Going", "The
Bag Lady", "Rushing
Toward Entelechy", "The
Paralyzed Apocalypse", "Frozen
Sonnets", "New
York, New York", "Live
on CNN", "America
Under Siege", "Gutter
Balls"
Links: Hot Links:
Janet I. Buck, Janet's
Latest Interview, Desideratum's
Doggie Dish, Author's Den,
Active Amp.org—Features
Janet I. Buck, Poetry
Magazine.Com-October-Janet Buck, The
Part-time Postmodernist (August 2000), San
Francisco Salvo, Moongate:
Janet I. Buck, Offcourse,
The October
Country , Cafe
Society: Poetry Life & Times, Kookamonga
Square, The
Adirondack Review , janetbuck.com,
Funky Dog Publishing—Janet
Buck's Strawberry Nipples, Athens
Avenue—Janet I. Buck, One
World-One Heart Exhibit , Ygdrasil:
Issue 9 September 2000