On the Move by Barbara Waldern - HTML preview

Taking the Bus

Bus rides in Masan are as rugged as the landscape,

Diesel engine lurches, bumps knock us off our perches—

The road is rough and there is no escape

Until you rise, stumble, clutch, and sway to and fro’

Through the doors’ jaws before away from the curb the bus draws

To jump and land, safe with things in tow,

Head turning to spy the bus through a red light race,

Again just in time to spot the bike that’s roaring t’wards you off the lot

So that your knees do a dance then feet brace.

When you get on the bus, it’s exactly the same thing,

You survive elbow thrust to embark and do what you must

To grab here and there, bag all afling

While for a quick seat you survey and test your feet

But that girl, jaw set, there’s no way that she’s going to let

You sit down in the most convenient seat

So you knock shoulder, brush leg and catch hair

Hope, geez, at least to a pole cling tight and ride the beast

But someone makes a move to get out of there

And you have to let go for a few secs, hang free—

Legs start to buckle, sprawl; soon you may have to crawl.

But, hold on!, “gasp, grunt, fart”, dang me!

It looks like that bus is going to have to stop,

I’ll have a chance to sit down awhile and rest my pants

‘Cause that guy with the hair is about to get off.

The bench at the very back is even worse—

Bodies bounce, bus bucks as it swerves to circle some trucks

So bad that anybody’s bound to curse.

“Why,” you ask, “do you all that pain go through?”

 And it is true that every day I take the bus anyway

Because the bus takes me to you.

By Barbara Waldern

Masan

January 20, 2008

ISBN: 9781476443010

Title: On the Move

Author: Barbara Waldern

Publisher: Smashwords, Inc.