RAOUL FERNANDES

Gives Way

The train is so full my shoulder is pressed 
against a stranger's shoulder the whole ride. 
Annoyance gives way to something else. 
Who holds another this long, sustained? 
Almost miss it when I leave the 
station into a neighbourhood, 

lush, unkempt, and unpeopled. A softening 
of our straight lines. Houses pulling up 
blankets of vines over them. A hint of how 
it will be after we go. Quiet, but for the birds 
and the insects they chase. There will still 
be trouble but it won’t be our trouble. 
I brush against a rosemary reaching out 
onto the sidewalk, and I know I will miss the trouble.