On The 7-Something to Penn Station.

• Author: Barbarese, J.T.
• Position: Poem - Poem

On The 7-Something to Penn Station We walk up to the station. Kids already there snack on the platform, half-eaten morning pastry in their hands, school-bags all over. My kid taps me with a stick-on earring squeezed onto a toothpaste cap she finds between the train seats. Says it's a thimble, says to make sure it doesn't get lost. It's important. I start to tell her the truth but say sure, give it here, and quietly lose it. The 7-Something pulls away and ratchets east. Sunrise. I keep thinking of her not able to sleep last night. Sitting up in her bed and trying to count all the stars. The car swivels and blinded I see them raised on their fathers' backs. Not to be carried to bed. To breathe. Puddled feces on the plank floor...