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“Commuting Home,” poem by Shasta Hatter; watercolor by Erik Kaye

By beagarth on January 20, 2017 • ( 0 )

COMMUTING HOME

Rattling through the night
Silent, separate, alone.
A young woman swears loudly
At her wireless companion.
No one reacts to this,
It is too common for notice.
The boys in oversized jeans
Slouch on the upper deck
And glare out at no one.
Laughing babies roll on and off
Accompanied by unseen mothers.
A woman calls out to someone boarding the train.
Laughing, they greet each other.
They always laugh when they greet each other.
They speak of men, politics, children.
Today they decide to boycott diamonds,
And we all smile at our sudden wealth.

by Shasta Hatter, copyright 2017
First published in Rose City Review, Dec. 2015.

Bio: Shasta Hatter is returning to poetry after an eighteen year absence. In 1998, she started taking a medication that let her function but seemed to strip away her poetry. In May, 2016 she decided to write a haiku every day for a month. This discipline gave her back her poetry. Recently, she has been published in Setting Forth, Haiku Journal, and 50 Haikus.

Erik Kaye’s Real Autobiography: I made a decision when I was in college that has defined my life. I decided not to pursue a career in Art until I first overcame a mysterious condition in my life that finally turned out to be Adult ADD. I thought I could just coast on secondary jobs, working in print shops and later, teaching English-as-a-Foreign-Language in Japan, until the inevitable completion of my real work, ADD-Busting. Which never came, at least not until now, that I’m in my 60s. But such is the way of art; painting is a solitary avocation that is as much about the transformative journey as it is about acquiring technical skill.
To see more of Erik Kaye’s art click: https://erikkayeart.wordpress.com/