cityrail

I'm in another city, and I've been working too long. It's dark outside. Solvents are being flushed through the instrument. The mental clarity which should have accompanied the work had long since wasted away.

The tracks are flooded, home is hours away. Misty rain coats my face as I wait.

The drongo drawled out the words, "I don't have a ticket". The lady in the grey uniform looked like a rock as he tried to shove his way past her.

Gusty wind makes me shiver in a suburb far away from home. Fluorescent green cityrail staff keep me from being alone in the dark, but they're on the job and somewhere else. My consciousness is blanketed by drowsy sleep as the rail bus drifts through dark side streets.

I'm so hungry, I want to break things.

Dim lights flicker in the carriage. We pull into yet another empty station with an unfamiliar name. Ugly street lamps bring the concrete and benches out of the surrounding black.

Home is still hours away, and I'm not here at all.