Men speaking a Slavic language unload 3/4" subfloor from the back of a capped pick-up truck. As they haul it up to the second floor, I find that I can visualize the space up there, the state of it, and the smell.
Transit Authority #161
A chihuahua standing and shivering on a dugout bench next to its person.
Transit Authority #160
A cigarillo hangs near-plumb from a woman's lip.
Transit Authority #159
At the stopping of the train, a man leaps up and exclaims and grunts, slurs and exclaims again, in no language, and steps out of the car to spit, mutter, and bubble on to a destination.
Transit Authority #158
A man's naked hands sink snuggly into the folds of his companions down jacket.
Transit Authority #157
"Can't dawdle!"
- a man to his wife as the light changes from Walk to Wait
Transit Authority #156
A teenager holding a makeup mirror close, picking flaking lipstick off their teeth after school.
Transit Authority #155
A father twirls what's left of his hair.
Transit Authority #154
A man in a brown hat shuffles a samba deck and makes long, unintentional eye contact with those around him.
Transit Authority #153
A woman in her SUV, alone, waiting for an opening in traffic, screaming and gesturing passionately, silent behind well-sealed windows.
Transit Authority #152
A telltale shine on the seat next to me, never drying.
Transit Authority #151
What's that rolling around on the floor? It's an empty cylinder of cheesy Pringles, tripping now and then on a dusty rubber band.
Transit Authority #150
A woman sings gospel music, a canvasser asks others their political affiliation, two women have idle talk about their character to each other, using expletives.
Transit Authority #149
It seems obvious when one considers the irony, that someone who has the poor taste to inflict their musical taste on unconsenting strangers should also have poor taste in music.
Transit Authority #148
A woman boards the bus, and offers the driver an ice cream. The driver agrees, and they start a conversation and eat ice cream together.
Transit Authority #147
A man wears sunglasses at night, and grips his money in his hand.
Transit Authority #146
A boy and a girl enter through the door behind me. The boy sits in front of me, while the girls sits behind me.
After a while, the girl joins the boy in front of me.
After a while, both of them stand up and go through the door at the far end of the train car.
After a while, they come back in and pass through the door behind me. I notice the man behind me in the reflection in the partition half stands look at the empty seat in front of me. He is watching them. The train stops, and the man stands up and prepares to step up onto the platform. He assesses the car, and goes to step downstairs but accidentally approaches the up-escalator, and then moves on up the platform. Out of the corner of my eye, I see boy and the girl run forward and dart into my car again, and they find a seat at the far end, the absolute front of the car.
Through the window, I see the man pass me again. He seems to be looking for something, trying to tamp down his urgency. The doors close and the train moves on, leaving him on the platform.
Transit Authority #145
A man in-between train cars on a frozen day, jabbing his finger out and screaming at the city.
Transit Authority #144
If one sits in the elevated seat directly behind the rear door of the bus, and next to the window, and if one should close their eyes, they may come to feel as though the announcements being piped through the speaker above their head are instead being piped directly in to their resting mind.
Transit Authority #143
A smile briefly curls the corners of a girl's lips. There must be good stuff piping through those ear buds.