A ride ‘home’

The lights cast greasy streaks across the bus windows,

And I glance at my reflection in them.

A fight breaks out between a girl and her cellphone,

And I try not to hear what she says.

But it's something about how things are getting lonely,

Though it was worded a little differently,

She misses her friends from back home,

And she hates this city.

As the bus hurls itself through the darkness I wonder if we are even in the city anymore,

Or if we are somewhere even more removed,

From the friends we have somewhere distant.

And I thought about how just out of eyesight,

Is the same as a flight,

Away.

In all the ways that matter.

And the girl hung up the phone.

I could feel the frustration welling up beside me.

Glancing, I saw a face ready to give up all of the tears it held onto,

And I said nothing.

Because I wasn't her distant friend,

And she wasn't mine.

We rode in silence, then, for awhile, nearing the end of the line.

Her stop was first,

And I watched her step out.

A lone streetlamp lighting the bus stop.

She was back in the city now, and out of our lonely tunnel.

And I wondered then, as the doors closed, if it helped.

To have someone suffer the same as you.

And the bus rolled on once more,

And when I got off, there was no streetlamp to return me to the city.

I've stayed in the dark night that bus blazes through, ever since.