While riding the subway, I tend to spend a lot of time looking at the things around me– the reflection of my face and other passengers in the window across from me, the grittiness of the actual subway tunnel, or even the gestures of the people sitting in the next train over. However, I’ve recently been really captivated by the MTA’s Poetry in Motion program, which features different poems on the inside of the trains.
I read a poem last week that really struck me. Here it is for your enjoyment!
“The Good Life”
When some people talk about money
They speak as if it were a mysterious lover
Who went out to buy milk and never
Came back, and it makes me nostalgic
For the years I lived on coffee and bread,
Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday
Like a woman journeying for water
From a village without a well, then living
One or two nights like everyone else
On roast chicken and red wine.
–Tracy K. Smith
An Art Journey--Renee Lai 