Drawing on Experience - 7/20/08

Transported
Ellen Wade Beals
© 2007

Riding home from
the orthodontist
on the crowded
Lawrence Avenue bus,
my body swaying to its stops
and lurches, holding
the sweaty metal pole,
I stood before
an old man,
his gray cement eyes
set on me so
I smiled,
imagining I
was brightening his day,
until he looked at me square
and pronounced,
"Idiot."

published in "After Hours"