A Lot Like Love

A Lot Like Love

I would call her name

If I knew what it was.

The train carriage rumbles rowdy

Shrieking and shuddering

Steel grazing and grating –

A mechanical marinade of metallic sounds

All fading away

Because something else is rumbling louder.

‘The next stop is… change here for…’

But I can’t get off till she does.

She jumped on when I did,

Just before the doors shut.

I didn’t notice her (at first)

But when she sat, her gaze ran across mine –

She had special effects in her 
Golden brown eyes

Like a pair of simmering sunsets

Frozen in ice.

‘The next stop is… change here for...’

The train says, in a machine voice.

Home was five stops ago

Why would I get off now?

I should say something

But I can’t –

Paralysed with contentment

And a fire in my belly

To match the fire in her eyes.

The next stop is… change here for…’

She uncrosses her legs

Stuffs her phone in her purse

And turns, unaware, towards the doors.

When they open, she gets up

And walks off the train.

In a daze, I wonder

How do I get back home from here?