339 and the other 45

The shops passed, the streets glowed

The jam started and the traffic slowed

The greying air and the smile-less faces

A bus that went through 45 places

She’d got in at 3 and sat on her own

A nomad in her thoughts on her window-seat throne

The people were a blur and the music up loud

A glance or two to the filling crowd

The sleep took over, the tunes were a mash

The conductor asked 50 others for cash

A jolt in the bus thanks to the speed bump below

She woke up disgruntled from her steel window-bar pillow

The rush increased and they climbed in, in bunches

She didn’t even have the smallest of hunches

When the boy with the earphones got in from the back

With glasses, and thoughts and a heavy back-pack

He stared at the people who lined up ahead

From 6’3” all he saw were 51 other heads

None seemed to budge, and none seemed to move

He’d gotten in at 25 and had to get off at 42

The music in his ears was playing only off and on

In a BEST 339, the signal’s always gone.

So he wriggled to his pocket and put off the FM

And for those 60-odd seconds he could now hear them.

He heard the horns and he heard them talk

They cleared a little up front and a foot ahead he walked

He started his mp3 and a smile appeared

As the junction passed and the signal cleared

3 feet from her was where he stood

As far from the seated as he possibly could

At 39, they got off like they all lived together

The ones in the bus could breathe a little better

That’s where he found an empty seat

Next to curly hair and tapping feet

That moment she felt a change in the air

She opened her eyes and found him there

He looked for a stunned moment at her

And they looked away, like it didn’t really matter

He stared single-mindedly, not moving an inch

When the bus tilted and elbows touched, she flinched

They didn’t hear the words playing in the other’s head

They heard the conductor say 42 instead

He got up slowly and kept a straight face

Hers too, but a shivering smile you could trace

At 42, he got off, not believing his luck

She on the other hand, knew that lightning had struck

A feeling they hadn’t expected to turn up for years

And the song played in two different sets of ears

“There may be something there that wasn’t there before”

And with a redder face, she got off at 44.