Poem for Passengers

By Matthew Zapruder

Like all strangers who temporarily

find themselves moving in the same direction

we look out the window

without really seeing or down at our phones

trying to catch the dying signal

then the famous lonesome whistle

so many singers have sung about

blows and our bodies shudder

soon we pick up speed

and pass the abandoned factories

there has lately been so much conversation about

through broken windows they stare

asking us to decide

but we fall asleep next to each other

riding into the tunnel

sharing without knowing the same dream

in it we are carrying something

an empty casket somehow so heavy

only together can we carry it

over a bridge in the snow

emerging suddenly into the light

we wake and open our laptops

or a book about murder

or a glossy magazine

though we are mostly awake

part of us still goes on solving

problems so great they cannot be named

even once we have reached our destination

and disembark into whatever weather

for a long time there is a compartment

within us filled with analog silence

inside us the dream goes on and on

Copyright Credit: Matthew Zapruder, "Poem for Passengers" from Father’s Day. Copyright © 2019 by Matthew Zapruder. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Source: Father's Day