Christy Wise
Encounters
Caltrain halts.
Possible pedestrian involvement
says loudspeaker voice.
An encounter
between pedestrian
and passenger train
cannot be good. Do they really not know?
Authorities on the way, they say.
Authorities for the train? Or pedestrian?
Hot air stagnant outside.
Cool inside.
Excited discourse
of two eight-year-old girls stilled.
Several passengers speak, wonder what happened.
Sirens. Local police cruisers. EMT van.
Two fire department squad cars.
Two sheriff’s vans.
An encounter.
Sounds like meeting an enticing person in a bar.
A: I had an encounter with a sexy man tonight at Gino’s Bar & Grill
B: Do tell!
A: Enticing but that was all. We went our own ways.
I hope this encounter is like that.
I hope an empty pile of old clothes sits on tracks,
moldering in dust and sun,
mistaken for a person.
Glazed language, duplicitous
but children are on board.
Mother guides girls
away from blinking emergency vehicles.
Passengers bend over phones,
back into cocoons.
Conductor: We’re moving the train. We couldn’t find the person.
You can get hit and leave?
Caltrain halts.
Possible pedestrian involvement
says loudspeaker voice.
An encounter
between pedestrian
and passenger train
cannot be good. Do they really not know?
Authorities on the way, they say.
Authorities for the train? Or pedestrian?
Hot air stagnant outside.
Cool inside.
Excited discourse
of two eight-year-old girls stilled.
Several passengers speak, wonder what happened.
Sirens. Local police cruisers. EMT van.
Two fire department squad cars.
Two sheriff’s vans.
An encounter.
Sounds like meeting an enticing person in a bar.
A: I had an encounter with a sexy man tonight at Gino’s Bar & Grill
B: Do tell!
A: Enticing but that was all. We went our own ways.
I hope this encounter is like that.
I hope an empty pile of old clothes sits on tracks,
moldering in dust and sun,
mistaken for a person.
Glazed language, duplicitous
but children are on board.
Mother guides girls
away from blinking emergency vehicles.
Passengers bend over phones,
back into cocoons.
Conductor: We’re moving the train. We couldn’t find the person.
You can get hit and leave?