PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Sucking down

an XL coffee from Dunkin

nearly an hour to kill

before my train

I have to stay awake

I have to be on

that one last train of the night

Amtrak cops getting ornery

They ready to make their move

You mustn’t pass out

on the luxurious hardwood bench

I have a train ticket

and I also have a warm bed

waiting for me at the other end

of this infernal rainbow

replete with silk sheets and fleece blanket

There are others passed out

sawing wood on the benches

some of them don’t have warm beds

to go home to

I’ve been there myself

passed out, crashed out

park benches, train station benches

sometimes just patches a grass

in secluded areas.

Never by design

usually by drunken circumstance

but now I have a safe retreat

and I feel grateful

I take a couple more swigs

as I see the Amtrak cops

being to mobilize

less than 40 minutes to kill

I see them questioning

an unticketed patron

I throw down a healthy swig

and observe the conversation

I feel for my Septa Key

tucked away in my pocket

and I think of that warm bed

I see unticketed vagrants

being asked to vacate the station

I get up to walk around

as there is less than 20 minutes

I don’t need the hassle

I begin to walk around

I can utilize the bathroom

before jumping on my train

It is getting late

I watch the minutes tick away

on the big clock

I can’t help but feel sorrow

for those poor folk

that don’t have that warm bed

with silk sheets and fleece blanket

Maybe we should worry more

about becoming a society

that can house all its people

How you treat the least of us

is the measure of a society

but I’m much too tired

to philosophize

I have less than 10 minutes

so I walk to my platform

to wait for my train

I am going home

and going home to sleep

in that warm bed

No need for Amtrak cops

to badger me for a ticket