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
https://www.postpoems.org/authors/georgeschaefer/poem/1113547
bathroomgraffiti 