Poem: Japan Train II
- wallacejnichols
- Nov. 21, 2006
Japan Train II
The man in the blue uniform
And the formal hat
Stands straight in his white gloves
At the back of the train.
Kumatori, next stop, he says
Along with some other polite words
(polite sounding, to me, that is).
In his punctual shoes
And his punctual haircut
He is both relaxed
And crisp.
Crossing the car, he nearly swaggers
(how un-Japanese of him!).
At the door he spins
and bows,
a deep bow and two small ones.
(almost invisibly small, shadows of bows,
really, just hints of the ripples of the one bow,
like uncontrollable recoils from that big one)
Does he allow himself to wander,
To think of baseball,
His woman,
The absurdity of a net over an entire golf course?
