Life Is Terminal

On the Harlem Line from Brewster

The 9:05 speeds in on time

To Grand Central Terminal

The end of the line

This morning’s coffee with her son

Will have to coexist

With an existential conversation with her oncologist

Life is beautiful

Life is terminal

This terminal is alive

Life is terminal

The river line disembarks

To the loudspeakers’ booming sound

Announcing the apparition of faces in the crowd

As a young man at the kiosk

Recites the works of Ezra Pound

While cataloging things somebody lost

Somebody found

Life is beautiful

Life is terminal

This terminal is alive

Life is terminal

A singer from Connecticut is walking off the New Haven Line

Humming a favourite song of the groom and the bride

Waiting on the concourse

A celebrant with empathetic eyes

Soon a circle forms of curious passers-by

Life is beautiful

Life is terminal

This terminal is alive

Life is terminal

Step out onto 42nd Street

Traffic comes to the feet of Mercury

At the end of the road

He separates the flow

At the beautiful terminal