Musings, Poetry

Train ride

by stickysituation

I was sitting in the train

reading Bukowski (who else?)

when a man got in at the next station and sat down near me.

He wasn’t much older than me, maybe 25

I looked out of the window and caught his reflection

looking at me and for a moment there

we just looked at each other in the mirror produced by the night.

Despite his young appearance I couldn’t help but wonder

what kind of life he led

he looked like he knew what it meant to go through shitty

times

I felt his nervous energy so when he finally got up

I knew he was coming to talk to me.

“Hello, I am an artist from Bratislava… well,

artist as in art, music, performance…”

he stared out the window and I found myself following his gaze

“A little bit of everything” he concluded while smiling nervously.

He gave me his card and I took it

nodding to the sound of his now even voice.

It was a crappy card

but I respected him deeply as his courage to come up and

talk about the thing he loved most in the world

moved me.

Although I’ve never seen him in the train since,

I keep his card in my purse

as a way of expressing my silent appreciation and a

reminder

to always follow my dreams.

26 thoughts on “Train ride”

  7. So beautiful!! This really touches me because I take public transportation to get to school everyday and I’ve had so many similar situations where strangers have had such profound impact on my life by a small gesture 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, that means so much to me! And it’s amazing how basically strangers can influence your life by simply having a conversation! The fact that mostly everyone on public transportation nowadays is on their phones makes little things like that rarer and more special to me 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

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