Subway
by Banaue Miclat

A woman's vanilla perfume
    overpowers the rush-hour winter mob.
A group of field-trip(ping) pre-schoolers cheers,
    and brings every passenger
    their first smile for the day.

--My first real smile in weeks.
  As tears freeze the heart
  That longs for you.
        so far away.--
      Tunnels away...

The tunnels swallow the mob away,
    and take them from place to place.
Yet are you really so far away,
    and these tunnels end where I don't belong?
That even this verse flows out
    in a foreign tongue?

I wait for you as rush hours ends.
    wait for an empty train to carry your smile.
to feel your warmth, to feel you close.

I wait for our words
    to drown their noise.

February 2004