Fantasy

Hater’s on the Train

Woman spewing hate on a train condemning people

Insulting for peace

Strident voice calling for change

Soft speech changes nothing

Nails scratching on the walls of hope

Let me in

Don’t keep me out

Steam of consciousness rant

Knowing no one’s listening

Speak anyway

Into the indifferent quiet raise your voice

be heard or be trampled by the herd

Dare to be different

Green shirt emerald mirrored shades reflect the world not as is but as it should be.

Spewing hate but calling for love

You’re a contradiction walking

I hear your pain

I can’t take it away

My helping hand you’d slap away because my skin’s too light

I haven’t lived your pain.

You see privilege not the struggle, the late nights,  the worry

never knowing if I’ll make it, keep the roof over my head.

Your clothes are nicer than mine yet you look at me and see wealth

All I’ve got its the breath in my lungs and the ideas in my head.

Life guarantees nothing but death.

You’re not God. Stop condemning and start loving.

***inspired by the woman ranting on the southbound 4 train in NYC

21 thoughts on “Hater’s on the Train”

    1. Thank you! I was so happy to step off a metro-north train and reenter suburbia after my train experience. I wrote this while she was hating on us. 😊

  2. “Your clothes are nicer than mine yet you look at me and see wealth”
    That’s what envy can do. It breeds hate instead of love. This is a very raw piece Mel! And yes, our surroundings to inspire the best of our poetry. 🙂

    I hope she will find love’s light soon.

    1. Thank you. Yes this was a raw piece. I wrote it standing on the train while she ranted and edited it on the ferry. I hope she wakes up and sees rlthe contradiction between what she claims she wants and what her actual message is because they’re not even close to being the same

  3. This is a wonderful honest piece of poetry. It seems almost spontaneous? I get what your speaker says, how this woman thinks she’s been so hard done by due to her race, yet she discriminates someone who is poorer than her, whose clothes aren’t expensive. That’s discrimatiin for certain, and the thing is you think this woman should know better? She’s a hypocrite. Interesting piece Melinda, and experience to write about.

  5. Excellent, Mel! Some lucid, evocative imagery here….to name just a couple that ‘grabbed’ me:
    “Nails scratching on the walls of hope”;
    “be heard or be trampled by the herd”;
    “You’re a contradiction walking”…….
    Superb! Hugs! <3

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