Ghazal

Its doors shudder open like the jaws of a creature yawning and swallow me whole – the bus —  

as I step over the crater where rain loves to pool, between sidewalk and vehicle onto the bus. 

Its hunger never ceases, packing pedestrians tight as sardines; we sway in the belly of the beast, hitting each other with bags and sharp joints, its engine growling with indigestion on this bus. 

More like fleas we are, parasites hopping in all to go to many somewheres – 

things to do and places to be after stepping off the bus. 

So many faces they blend, nameless comrades on the journey; I take pieces from each of them, before they fade away – bursting backpack, worn boots on this bus. 

How did we all find ourselves here, desperate to go the same direction, at the same time,  

so many stories colliding for a time in this bus.  

A mother stresses to soothe her baby’s cries, lest it upset the creature’s focus, disrupting the balance of whispered conversation and the hum of breath, ours and its, on this bus.  

I wonder if they chose to be here, what circumstances led to this moment of symbiosis,  

Do they have someone waiting for them when they escape the maw of the bus?  

Do they observe me too, snippets of my image buried in their memories like they in mine, or am I merely another particle in the stomach, satiating the beast’s hunger, fading into this bus? 

The creature runs fast, its wide body manoeuvring between vehicles, around bends and turns, following the path like a predator follows its prey, stalking its next meal – this bus.  

Sometimes music accompanies the ride, moods lifted and shared, tapping my foot alongside the beat of the creature’s heart, the rhythm that steadies the speed of this bus.  

I know my route like I know the sky is blue, the blurry movie of houses and lights constant, rocked like a child in the embrace of the creature, sometimes lulled to sleep by the bus.  

I retreat into myself when the belly’s capacity is met, but it reaches inside for me,  

so often I join the creature we’ve become one and the same, Mckenzie the name of this bus.  


This article was originally printed in Volume 24, issue 5 on January 9, 2025.

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