Commuter Train

Monday morning, sharp-edged elbows
Nudge the spleens of rival
Bitter groan-up squabblers
Jostling, momentary psychopaths,
Hoards who scramble
To board the commuter train

Inside, the panic of penned in herds
Sweats through unwashed hair and tired open pores
As commuters try to obliterate one another
Each from every mind, escaped in every paper
Bent hidden in the folds of every paperback cover
Key-pad gadgetry, bleeping phone-cum-computer game

Anything to shut out, numb the pain
Of a square inch lost in a foot shuffle
Or to dumb down the stench of stale weekend sex
And secondhand breath which
Enflamed with a belch of last night's curry
Adds to this prison of wannabe-executive stress