Bus Poem #1

What up companeros?

You can't have it!

It’s a rainy Tuesday morn here in The Old South and it feels more like spring than winter. I’m drinking coffee in a cafe watching a little girl in a dress covered with pink flowers spin until she’s dizzy and nearly careen her head right through a dessert case – a sure sign of spring. Her mother is too busy gabbing and looking at her cell phone to know that she’s given birth to a seer and a prophet.

As some of you may know I was recently awarded Writer in Residence status at the Main Library in downtown Nashville. Essentially this means I have a private Writer’s Room for the next several months right in the heart of my downtown arts beat and literally overlooking the Occupy Nashville encampment.

This opportunity has me taking the bus back and forth pretty often as the driving and parking fees end up at about triple my daily bus fare. However, I’m new to Nashville’s transit system and still finding my groove.

One of the best things about riding the bus is that you have time to do something instead of driving. I’m playing with the idea of writing a bus poem everyday. Which is to say, I wrote one this morning:

Rapid Transit

On this rainy
Tuesday bus,
a boy with a
bow tie
is studying
for class
while a butternut squash
pays his way
in change.
And the seasons change all
around us
on this
not-so-magic bus.
It’s cold in the winter and
hot in the summer and
it always stops
more than it
starts.
Now it’s just me
and the driver,
and he looks like a double
fudge brownie
with a smile.
And he smiles back at
me
in the mirror
as if to say
“Finally! Now I can show you…”
as the bus bursts
into a
tongue of blue
flame
and the wheels lift
up
and off of
the street.

Joe Nolan <3

Watch this performance of my OccupySong at Occupy Congress in DC!