Lights Go Out in the 2nd Car of the N Judah

[audentior_ito]

We rattle through darkness,
briefly illuminated in fluorescence,
but most of the tunnel lights are out.
No one is bothered,
no one looks up.
Occasional faces lit in ghostly
white, soft glows of LCD screens,
unperturbed as long as they have Signal--
perpetually connected
IVs of social media.
I am the only one who reacts,
grinning broadly into the shadows,
gleeful, joyous.
The tunnels are always an adventure:
2-minute free-falls
through my personal Wonderland,
only improved by more darkness
and half-glimpsed faces of other passengers
who are inconvenienced, but no more.
I want to laugh madly, cry violently.
In the anonymous oblivion
I can be anything,
feel everything,
my imagination boiling over.