I saw a mouse
Down on the tube
Whilst waiting for a train
Going south on the northern line
Packed tight we stood
Unmoving
(But for a shift of weight
A flick of hair
Or the odd furtive glance
That sometimes caught another)
Outwardly silent
(Beneath the background noise
To which we were accustomed)
Oblivious to the cacophony of other
people’s thoughts
Deafened by our own
Staring intently
As every good commuter should
At the concave world
Of words and colour
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When something caught my eye
At first it was just the awareness of
movement
That attracted my gaze
As a half-remembered thought
Or a face in the crowd
Brings the world to a momentary standstill
There it was again!
Snapped from my reverie by peripheral
movement
That dissolved in foveal glare
Retreating from consciousness
Into the shadows
But even as every fixation
Demanded another
Something began to coalesce
Black on black
(Like the surface beneath the rails –
Paint pre-empting dirt)
Nose to the ground
Searching for food
It moved quickly
Describing swift tangents
Apparent randomness
Belying the economy of its search
The depth of its knowledge
(Acquired over a brief lifespan)
And as I looked down
I witnessed a master at work
Completely unaware
Of my attention
Or even my presence
(How strange to consider the consequence of
a simple exchange)
When suddenly it stopped
Dead still
Snout raised
For the briefest of moments
While others checked their watches
Or peered into the blackness
I had no need
I knew the train was coming
Even before the slight change of pressure
Followed by the impact of a wall of breath
The tearing, terrible scream of steel on
steel
And the final illumination at the apex of
the bend
I knew
But could not stop myself from looking
When I looked back the mouse was gone
And as the train burst rudely into the
station
Two minutes ahead of the next
We stumbled in obligatory unison
Towards the doors
I don’t know what the others thought of -
Destinations, dreams, work or loved ones?
I thought of the space beneath my feet
- Hitherto undiscovered -
And the solace it gave one more resilient
than I
Of course the mouse found no solace
It was I who found solace in the mouse
Without the imposition it was neither
A dream nor a
nightmare
