A young woman takes a seat besides me on the train going home. Her left arm is heavily inked, while she gingerly looks over the right arm, cased in sheet, covering a new tattoo. Across me, a group of young teens in their uniforms chat animatedly while sipping a cool drink. They remind me of spring season, fresh as tulips. Passengers pour in at every train stop; it is a never ending tide of faces. Yet I am at ease with changing current as I am always taking the same route going home. Outside the blur of maple trees are turning orange rust and deep brown. Autumn is a shade of color in my eyes.
by the drooping vine,
butterfly cocoon sways
its empty tendrils
Macro Photography of Butterfly Wings by Linden Gledhill
Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Changes hosted by Kanzen Sakura ~
Thanks for the visit ~
You have change within your routine. There is still comfort because for you the road is the same it is the faces that change. I am glad that all of life is not like that though. We need some consistency in the faces - that is relationship. I love people watching on the train though. There are stories behind her tattoes and I want to hear them. Ha.
ReplyDeleteAh, seasons change from spring to fall so quickly. It is good to be at ease with this change & all of life's changes.
ReplyDeleteI love autumn--it has a quickness to it--we are not quite there yet
ReplyDeleteThe change in seeing something different every day.. I really like that about trains and subway.. to the keen observer there is always something new, and the colors outside.. Autumn is a shade of color in my eyes... what a lovely end to the Haibun.
ReplyDeleteThe signs of change are sometimes so very hidden, like that butterfly cocoon and the change it holds within it.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful observation.
ReplyDeleteTerrific prose, but brilliant haiku (a form one can work on for eons). Your prose
ReplyDeleteis so tight, so rife with imagery & mystery, it functions as prologue for the short story that blossoms in our mind. People watching for a poet is like harvesting.
Seasons sure can change rather fast, making even the same route a bit different
ReplyDeleteLove this, Grace ... so very real ... nonthreatening and comforting ... Love, cat.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful, Grace. I can especially see the students "bright as tulips" - still so much energy, when the rest of us are going homeward tired.
ReplyDeleteGosh! This is such a breathtaking piece :D I specially love the closing line... beautiful work :D
ReplyDeleteLots of love,
Sanaa
Oh trains of
ReplyDeletelife.. so easy to
catch and
ride..
change of
life always
now so
easy
to
die on
tracks
as dead..
Now in Life..:)
I like the sense of new and exciting, the new tattoo and the changing tide of faces, mixed with the familiarity of routine. As an expat, I find that using the routine as grounding to understand the myriad of new stimuli to be effective for making sense of things.
ReplyDeleteThis poem gives me the feeling of possibly how the "natives" view me, tattoos and all, as they shuttle home. This is a nice perspective.
Reminds me of riding the bus home from work years ago, everyday the same route, but nothing happened the same. People changed clothes, events were not the same.... not two days are alike...and so it is for surgeons, carpenters, rivers and tulips...you spoke to change in the sense of quiet observation.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of my days living in Boston and taking the subway trains...always new faces of constant change. I liked how the students were described as fresh as tulips.
ReplyDeleteNice combination of changes -- the changing people, the trees changing with the seasons, and the caterpillar changing in the cocoon in the haiku -- but in it all the constant of taking the same route home. Very nice. Peace, Linda
ReplyDeleteI always watch people around me with silent curiosity. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I will look at empty cocoons the same way from here on out.
ReplyDeleteYou are very observant, one of the reasons why I love popping by. To read the results of your observations. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
I love Autumn colors. It brings a certain feeling I can't explain.
ReplyDeleteNice take on this. You know I also like to pass the time people-watching when I'm traveling. :)
The act of train travel never varies, but the environment and going-ons change. It takes the sensitive poet's mind to notice!
ReplyDeleteHank
Fantastic! You have such a gift of taking us on the journey with you and making us feel like we're right along side you. Thank you of sharing your gift with us and have an awesome week!
ReplyDelete