NaPoeWriMo, Day 1

[jakebe]

In celebration of National Poetry Writing Month, I'll be writing a poem a day for the month of April. If you're interested in joining a community of poets who are doing the same thing, feel free to come to napoewrimo and join us!


The rain makes
this miserable morning
look like the grainy footage
of another miserable morning.
Here we are, huddling under
the bus stop, wretchedly
sharing each other's heat
while trying not to invade each other's
personal space.
How dutifully we cling to the charade
of ignoring each other:
some of us stare at our phones,
or at the ground, brow furrowed
against the wind and our thoughts,
some staring out there,
across the parking lot, past the rain
and the cars, anywhere but here.
We do this for the sake of our privacy,
it's understood, but what's the point
in pretending we aren't using each other,
benefiting from our neighbor's company,
warm despite the rain?
It's become rude to us to be contented
exactly where we are,
but I am a bastard,
a smiling villain through and through.
I look at my newest neighbor, and nod
as if to say "Thank you."
Instead I say, "Good morning."


I'll let the poem sit for the day and post my thoughts about it the day afterwards.