Platform Drama

Across the tracks

we saw a man

huddled and mincing

clearly drunk

unaware, on a different plane

almost writhing

within his skin.

Next to him

at the exit-only

another man

was attempting

to surreptitiously enter

and for a time

there was silence.

The two lost
in their silent struggles.

Then exit-man
called to drunk-man
and an incoherent
verbal altercation
rapidly escalated
through the bars
of the stairwell cage.

And the inebriated one
swayed and almost tumbled
onto the tracks,
and the dexterous one
began to climb
and attempted to squeeze
through a gap.

Eventually, impotent, they left.
Off, certainly, into future troubles.