skonen_blades

It must have been the bus driver’s first day
Clean, crisp shirt
Mid 20s
Clean-shaven
Thin
Unwrinkled
Bow tie
BOW TIE

Smiling and greeting each passenger
Eye contact and gratitude
One passenger asked for a free ride
And the driver happily obliged
Complimenting the passenger’s manners
He cheerily informed the bus at large
of the reason for the two slight delays
And the length they’d be stopped

Like an alien flower blooming here
Like a talking dog blowing my mind
Like a transplanted organ before rejection starts

I looked at him like a cat must look at a magician
Trying to understand a trick

This was the number 20
He drove me down commercial
I left the bus just as he was
About to turn left onto Hastings
Through the nightmarish car wash
Of Vancouver's infamous intersection
Where zombies walk the earth
And fentanyl kidnaps every day
And fetal alcohol syndrome smiles
And jagged edges shred souls
And syringes play darts
And reality breaks down
And solutions become useless

And I feel like this driver
This fresh-faced, positive, force
Became a metaphor
This young driver
Became all young people
All bright-eyed, well-meaning youths
About to head into the future



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