Commuting by Scent
 
London city mice, deafened by evolution,  
sniff out crumbs, sip from a passenger’s kombucha,
eat stir-fry, fusion food, pirogi,
hamburger,
menthol vape, cheap magazine paper,
wet leather,
sneeze at dry clean chemicals, washed-linen bleach,
living in burned dirt undertone and metal screech.
 
A teenager impregnates sweat into his seat
it reeks, his overworked deodorant competes
with 20 unwashed travel hours,
via Heathrow.
Opium drifts down the carriage,
90s retro,
A woman whispers reading Perfume in German
her neighbour contemplates many ways to murder.
 
Loud wine flavours the conversation opposite,
Bordeaux stains the shirt, turns a lisp to speckled spit,
drops of possible illness.
 
Monica Piercy

 
If you have any thoughts about this poem, Monica Piercy would be pleased to hear them