As long as I can feel my spinning wheels, my heart will be OK
Taxi driver, speed, coffee, Tim Horton’s donuts, every day
Rush hour, five lanes on the freeway, jostling trucks & cars
Then I trickle down byways, radio booming rock & roll stars
I pass tumbledown, clapboard houses, ghettos of locked doors
Red lights at the corner. He waves. Take him on my ride? I pause
He jumps in. Tells me the story of his life. This is his confessional
Once more, inside my safe place. Released, perhaps he will not fall
I’m with you, then without you. I don’t know why, where or when
Again, this brief embrace, a friend just now, then soon forgotten
Journey’s end is your obliteration. New ride, new start, or so it seems
Who are you? Do I want to know? I’m safer with my avatars & dreams
I wonder, as I hide in this darkness, taking you to your destination
Would you listen to me? Stay with me? Avoid your new assignation?
Who tells the story? Who makes the plans? I’m driving to eternity
Headlamps, taillights, streaming colours. Is this the only path for me?
© Christopher 2024
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A beautifully written, evocative and thought-provoking snap-shot of one of life ‘s perhaps most undervalued ‘key workers’ – sensitively observed – bringing to life the daily musings and interactions of the taxi driver – capturing the sense of solitude and transience. I particularly enjoyed this poem – being a passenger / an observer -caught up in the flow of this person’s daily life and ponderings.
Comment by emma lumsden on 24 May, 2024 at 5:29 pmThank you.