JAMES CREWS
WAITING FOR THE SUBWAY
When I step from the stuttering escalator
onto the platform, a shaft of sun
slants down from windows in the station,
shining on the faces of passengers so they
have to squint as they stare into the tunnel,
waiting for the blinking eyes of a late
blue line train to arrive. And as I pass
from darkness into that dawn, a shiver runs
the length of my spine, and I remember
how I used to play with my mother's hair—
scent of vanilla as I lifted it gingerly
from her neck, then tied it in a ponytail
with a rubber band. How she would shudder
and rub the goose bumps on her arms, saying
Someone must've walked over my grave today.
JAMES CREWS is the author of two collections of poetry, The Book of What Stays (Prairie Schooner Prize, 2011) and Telling My Father (Cowles Prize, 2016), and the editor of Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection (Green Writers Press, 2019). He lives on part of an organic farm in Vermont with his husband and teaches creative writing at SUNY-Albany.