Girl gets on the Q-46 bus
all teeth, yelling excitedly
into her pink cell phone
just loud jabbering to me
annoying shouted banalities
to the Spanish-speaking woman across the way
forced to take in every too loud word.

We’d exchanged annoyed looks
without moving our mouths
the girl is way in the back, mind you,
making a racket like a crazed bird or small primate

Finally the woman near me
calls back
“please lower your voice”
and the girl dials it from ten to eight.

Thankfully, she got off the bus
two stops later,
the bus moved quietly
toward the subway
as we unbent our brows.

At that point nobody was upset any more
that the air-conditioning wasn’t working
and the windows didn’t open.