By Lillibit Ray

Hopping on the escalator
taking no steps, a man
floats down, underground,
to catch a subway train traveling,
not always knowing
where the trains in life lead,
but this ride he will take to the end.
Smells of mildew, urine, trash,
olfactory senses on alert,
he approaches a train heading
to nowhere he has previously gone,
desperate to find redemption but fooled again
by counterfeit angels and false gods.
He walks past a barefoot busker with worn guitar
And crooked blue eyes
staring ahead in opposite directions,
blinded by life, but better able
to see through transparent human nature.
The man passes a woman with crystal ball.
Filled with black smoke and purple dragons,
Sitting cross-legged, against the wall,
Propped up by barrier to world above,
Searching an orb for synthetic love.
The man boards the train
and the subway cars
snake through dark tunnels,
serving as a current day time warp,
where one can climb aboard as a child
and exit as a walking corpse
searching for the station
where the dead now cavort.