1.
Rid e on bu s
thr ough streets
of sno w
Pas the
Magneto sphere
Giant
Ball of electri city
Pulling busted
cars
Up wards in to
A field of force
crumbling
Drop ed into
the maw
of a furnace
Then
In a blink
The bus
Moves on
Down South St
reet and
past
Fitler Square
Where
My father’s
Moth er slept
In her slippers
Snatched
From Ger many
Before the
Wars.
A wom man
waves
A hand kerchief
At the bus s
top on
Taney
Street
Her manic
Waving
Dis appearing
In a gout
Of smoke
Die sel
Exhaust
Pushing
Downhill
To the
Train yards
Hog diesels
Pumping
Be side
Us in the
Blistered
Morning.
As I study
My Ovid
Trot translation
Ars Amore
Metamorphoses
Fasti
Glancing up
In metere
Stumbling
Within
Subjunctive
cases
As tenements
Slide by
Like goblets
Of windowed
Ghosts
Elevated
Thro ugh
Passive
Voice
Amo
Amas
Amat
I love
You love
He loves
This city.
2.
Mo ments
Slip and
Glide
Bck for
Wrd
Mum bling
Voices
On the
Bus
Mothers
Cud dling
Child Ren
Sleep ing
Bums
Weeping
Leathr
Boys
Smoking
Cath lick
Gilrs
Doping
On the
Eye balls
Googling
Ipads
Flaming
Chat her
Wet
Mittens
Steaming
Snow out
Side
Drifting
Book bags
In aisles
Funneling
Feet in
Tune to
Trippy
Music
Bleeding
From ear
Buds
Popped
and passed
Hand to
Mouth
Fizzlwd
Bump y
Slop P
Laughing
Spill
In
On my
Cordovans
Blood
Stained
Crusted
From Friday’s
Dance
Monday
Moth
Fever
Sleeping
On de
Bus
Janet
A dream
Memory
Soft tits
And
Grinding
Rome
Filling
My Mind
With
Glitter
And guts
Nero
Messsalina
Seneca
Lions
In the
bathtub
And
I’m dying
On the
Bus
Like a
Christian
Martyr
Love crossed
With Janet
The nails
In My
Hands
My feet.
3.
The bus
Turn-
iquets
Into
A skool
Yard
Spinning
Wheels
Crunching
bones
beneath
the holog
raphic
spin of
time
like
wheels
anthro posing
Whoosh
Doorway
]
Exit.
~
Thomas Belton is a poet and fiction writer, and a frequent Op-Ed writer for the New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.