Faces of London

No rush.
I was walking to the train station,
like a man on an evening stroll;
hands in my pockets,
face riveted to side streets, closed doors,
shut windows without curtains.
There were strings of people inside;
some were hanging on doors in bras;
others wore nothing else but shirts.
A man was coughing like a rocket.
a lady sniffed like an immigrant,
a child wept like the social services.
The cold wind slammed me
into a boneless hurry.
Maybe it was about to deport me,
for contaminating my neighbours with stares.
Everyone was running, jumping,
breathing loudly, smoking something, vaping.
I had never smoked all my life,
which was not in this world.
I rushed because everyone was rushing.
kicked nylon bags onto the road.
nudged slow pedestrians away;
kicked bin buckets off,
made a face like a small boat off a Moroccan sea.
I punched my Oyster card on the reader
and broke through the barrier.
Oyster was not working fast enough.
These barriers should be open at all times.
I ran down the elevator, and I swam.
I slipped onto the platform.
The train arrived like a snake,
or a long, serpentine crocodile;
I squeezed past my predecessors.
A lady sat on the seat I wanted to sit,
perhaps she saw me dodging body bullets,
and squeezed her face like a hostile environment.
A man was pacing around.
He must have lost a penny in the stampede.
A man opposite me stared at me like the Home Office.
Another woman was wearing a sleeveless silk dress;
It stopped at her navel like a short train.
I guessed that she was coming from the gym or going there,
or going to a different gym.
We all must go to the gym sometime.
However, she was looking at one boy
opposite her,
as though she were her majesty’s revenue and customs.
She must have a retinue of pounds stacked somewhere.
But amazing how she drank a cup of emptiness,
as she nestled on a hollow sky.
At last, the train stopped at a station that looked like Calais.
It must be my stop.
When did we cross Dover?
I was busy staring at the sky,
thinking that was where the river was.
until I saw the river on the faces of my co-passengers,
I never believed that I could swim so well.