Monday breath
Shoes still wet

Mind not ready yet
I rush toward the train
As if breath could outrun time

A blanket of warmth I didn’t ask for

Too much breath
Too little space
I stand

Gripping a pole
That’s never been clean enough

It smells like
Coffee rain skin maybe hope

No one looks
Everyone hides
No one shields

A woman counts coins
Maybe for coffee
Maybe just to keep moving

And the girl with the unicorn game
Her fingers smile
She doesn’t

A lady wipes her glasses
As if clarity will make it less gray
But it’s not fog that hides the world
It’s the dark
Outside and in

A ticket check
Phones flip
Looking for proof
Somewhere between Facebook and fear

I have my ticket
Still feel the shame

She stands pregnant
And no one moves

She’s a mountain
Among nodding heads

I think:

The world is tired
The world is Monday
The world is us

“Next stop is Self-Insight”

For a second
I thought it was real

Maybe it was in my head
Maybe the speaker knows more than we do

Between two stops and a single breath
I heard every unspoken thought

A boy with earbuds hiding storms
A mother pretending not to cry on the toilet

A student who just wants to be seen
Me wondering why it all feels so tight

Doors open
People leave
But something stays

Maybe me
Maybe you

Maybe we all have a station inside us

Called Self-Insight

We just forget to get off there