LEGROOM - Shaya Block

Somewhere between bus seats, where your ass

(The vulnerable flesh) meets friction

Against a stranger’s. Disdain

Married in your labored restraint,

Between the turn-forced bonding

And with eyes-forward overlook

Them seat-shifting for legroom,

Is some simple social

Relief bound-useless

Amid the air of casual stoicism;

The unspoken etiquette of public transit -

The fringed ignorance of hatred

Pushes even to the edge