Riding the Metro

Pre-smartphone:
A mother and her young son take a seat as the doors close.
An older woman in business attire reads a newspaper.
A young man sifts through his backpack and removes a notebook.
He studies it intently, perhaps preparing for a waiting test.
I thumb through an outdated Art News magazine.
The rhythmic motion of the train lulls me into a trance.
Magazine forgotten, I withdraw into myself.
I stare blankly out the window as the city passes by.

Post-smartphone:
Like a school of fish or flock of starlings,
The mob of texting, smartphone interfacing human drones
Squeezes onto the overpacked subway car
With barely a glance at anyone else within its ranks.
Occasionally a single individual’s glance drifts upwards.
At each stop, a tendril squirts out and more pack in,
All rarely glancing from their devices…
Myself included…

Ever present Post- and Pre-:
Picking up and leaving off emails, posts, likes, wants, desires, connections…
We drift between worlds, no longer here, not yet there.
We forget what it means to be wholly present in the moment
As we disengage in an effort to find connection.

We sit nearly motionless in our own little worlds.
Ensconced in our own activities, we are only vaguely aware of one another.
Yet, as passengers, we have entered into an ongoing narrative.
As we come and go our stories are picked up and left off at the station.