September 19, 2016 | Occasus | Issue 6 | Poetry

She Waits for the Bus and Muses About Life

It’s 20 degrees below and I’m sitting
In the bus stop: waiting.
My mind wanders as it grows numb with cold.
At home a letter of acceptance waits
On the messy dining room table
For me to tell it if I’m coming. (My ex goes there.)
                                                    I could say no.
And then maybe some other Canadian, freezing and hopeful
Would take my place.
He could be number 26 out of 25.
Just not quite close enough.
And my denial would give him the opportunity to learn.
                                                    Maybe I should say no.
A man sits beside me, dressed in suit and tie.
Job interview?
I wonder, if he missed the bus,
What would happen?
Ten years from now he’d live in a trailer, poor.
Or take the free time and invent the next iPod,
Donate money to Rwanda,
Become President.

I wonder: what is I that makes us
What we are?
Collections of musical taste and favourite colours
Promising to call when we know we won’t
Or taking the bus to a job interview
Two hours early
                                    Just in case.
Say I left right now to get a coffee (trying to escape the freezing cold)
And came back just as the bus and the man in the suit
Had gone.
So I walk home, and meet the love of my life, forget about The Ex
And rip up the acceptance letter to travel Europe.
 
The bus pulls up and because it’s cold
And I’m tired,
And also want to see where the man gets off
I get on.
He’ll nail the interview, and work 9-5 every day,
Never knowing that one day a girl wrote a poem about him
While waiting for the bus,
Got a good mark,
Kept her scholarships
And left behind an entire life
Of espresso
And croissants.

ELANA KATZ is a first year student at the University of Western Ontario pursuing an Honors Specialization in English and Writing and a Major in the School for Advanced Studies in Arts and Humanities.