Rush Hour
.
Shuttling
between work and home
the highway slouches lower
and buildings curve, loom
overhead,
meet and merge,
a tunnel of masonry
and windows.
Disembodied faces
peer down
in impassive disregard
at all who pass
this way.
The empty panes
stare more intently,
perhaps in sympathy.
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oh some days on the commute i will take the sympathy…smiles. very nice…
ha – the commuting blues.. good the panes are on our side at least…
Aahh… a day of work after a long weekend makes one see the world in a different light indeed..
great poetry here, my friend!
Interesting that you anthropomorphize the windows and give them human sympathy…Original!
I haven’t ridden a subway or done a city car commute in many years, but you put me right back there with this one. Deceptively simple, but it conveys that whole sense of there being an automaton on both sides of the glass, with the only thing left alive in an artificial world the space between. Pleasure to read, as always.
Thanks! I aim for deceptively simple and fear I often just achieve simple.
Thanks all for the comments. Feedback appreciated!
I know how it is like… great share!
Like this, have lived this life! Interesting twist about the empty panes, Libby @Libbypoetry
At this time of year my drive to work is through a canopy of green where the trees meet overhead and the only beings looking down on me are the birds but I found the image of your buildings curving – a man-made canopy of brick and glass – just as captivating Matt. I have a young poet friend who loves the beach and the countryside but who has to live in the city. He’s all but homeless at the moment, begging beds from friends and family and spends a lot of his time wandering the streets but he told me once that he sees beauty everywhere – the tall buildings and scaffolding are his trees – and your poem reminded me that what we see is often what is within us.
True that. Sometimes I see beauty, sometimes a despairing desolation. Depends on my frame of mind on that given day.
Very nice….. Rush hour never easy 🙂
Captures the disconnect this most grating heart of urbanization can stir in people…it’s never pleasant, for any of the senses, and nothing makes one feel quite so isolated…
This flows, unlike the traffic in rush hour. Those last lines are wonderful.
Yep, it’s dreary.
Very nicely done.
Yeah it can be a horror, but once in a blue moon it can be fun or at least a tad enjoyable as some sights make it worth while. But 99% of the time it sucks, Great write, with wonderful flow, no gas fumes sucking up our air..haha
Disembodied faces and empty panes go together nicely.
I like the idea that the empty panes sympathize with you.
Thanks!
Is that before or after a cup of coffee? Daily routine often goes unnoticed. Great topic to write on…
This poem, simple as it is, sucked me in immediately. I felt it physically…and that rarely happens to me.
Simple? In words (few) and form, but deep, profound in something intangible.
Loved it.
Lady Nyo
After a working day, traffic lights seem to me so unfriendly – they never let me get home!
=*
Captures the mood of the long day not yet ended
Such a manic moment, captured wonderfully here. Great write ~ Rose
I’ve often wondered, during my daily commute, what the houses and buildings and trees all think as I pass by. Now I know. Good poem, Matt.
you really capture the sense of a downtown rush-hour; i love that it’s the empty windows that look down with feeling. Bravo.
Really like this one Matt. I don’t find it so dreary, but rather almost surreal. I like your attention to the details. Very mindful.
I can really relate. Nice one!
Nice how the pace and feeling of the poem matches the scene. http://www.looseleafnotes.com/wp/2011/07/half-and-half-moon/