A Midnight Train
She sits alone on the train, the dim lighting
casting a looming shadow over her small body.
Confined to a tiny seat, her legs pressed
tightly against one another, she can almost
feel her legs ready to give out, but she must not,
for if she does, she will take up-
Too much space.
He boards and sits beside her, just beneath the light, soaking in the artificial rays,
his posture relaxed, she notices all the empty seats; why here?
Although the seat they share is small, his legs are spread with his hands resting gently
between them, in the deafening silence, she feels his leg brush up against her-
Refusing to give space.
Loud thumping can be heard from an unknown source,
the beat a familiar foe;
A man with blood on his fists, a woman dripping and bruised
fear seeping from her wounds.
It was a deafening noise that filled the air between the two as the
beat
of the beating echoed and grew.
However, the sound was not from the shared memories of those overlooked
It was her heartbeat filling the space.
All her life she was taught to fear the species
that dominates,
that rules,
that takes up space.
Especially now,
During the midnight train
She fears their eyes sizing her shapely structure.
She fears their hands touching, the temptation, that is her body.
She fears their judgement of her joyous personality.
She lives in constant fear.
and so falls the kingdom of the mind
For years, the darkness of the land lived
Festering and Foreboding
was the presence of the entity-
Despair.
Before the era of misery, it was a prosperous and peaceful province,
Ruled only by a luminous light,
recognized as-
Hope.
Love, laughter, liveliness,
All suddenly snatched away,
in a moment’s notice, only fear-
Remaining.
Months of misery
Years of yearning
for the sacred light of happiness to-
Return.
And it did,
For now the light shines brightly and speaks; “Rise”
With one command
The kingdom is bound by the spell of hope once again
And I, a citizen, am spellbound
As I feel my thoughts float off the ground,
Away from the inky black entity.
Biographical Note: Harley Green is a freshman undergraduate English major at the University of South Florida. Her concentration is in Creative Writing. She hails from Holiday, Florida and has been writing for most of her life. She recently started working on poetry because of the course she is taking this semester. Some of her favorite things to write about include social justice issues, mental health, and personal memories. In her free time she loves to play video games with friends, watch anime, or sit down with a good book.