I catch myself watching someone sleeping on the bus

She’s old, she looks uncomfortable

I worry about the position of her neck

Her head sags forward

Then it snaps right back I wonder if it’s

normal to frown that much when you’re asleep

I guess she’s smiling in her dreams

I can’t imagine what it feels like

to wake up and see me looking

So I quickly look away

Then not long after this a wet sound hits my ears

It’s much wetter than the usual sounds on the bus

I turn around to see a man stood up two rows behind me

I smile politely

Was he just sick?

He’s wearing a face that says ‘I haven’t just been sick’

But he’s wеaring trousers that say ‘I’ve just

been sick and it’s all over my trousеrs’

If it wasn’t for the sick itself I think

he probably would have got away with it

Until it comes again and again once, twice, three times

I’m thinking please don’t wake up now

because it’s all gone horrible

And it’s all over the bannister

He gets off the bus

I think that’s for the best

I don’t want to judge him

It’s a free country but some of us need to chew our food

A little bit more than we chewed it today

Poor bannister

Poor trousers

Please lady don’t wake up