Seething silently behind reflective spectacles

One must exercise care

around these mild-seeming creatures

One, after a day spent,

undoubtedly doing distasteful things

for too little pay,

wants the seat next to yours on the uptown A

and not finding as much room as he requires

to spread his legs the way he likes

rises, huffy, roosterish

crosses to perch on another too narrow seat

eyes slits burning at his newspaper

Then, as deep sleep returns to you

this well dressed person leaps

to change to the seat across from you

Your ankle the dog he kicks hard

as he lurches toward  it.

Rudely awake you glare, ankle aggrieved  

he resists by staring at his newspaper

face like an unsanitary knife, stinking

Ahimsa boy is left watching him exit

a stop before he could rise,

cross the car,

stand briefly and heavily on the instep

and raise one side of his face impassively to say

“pardon me.”