pictures from bus rides

bus ride 1:

i move to the back of the bus where a man with his cap on, cream sweater hidden under blue overcoat shifts his bundle and makes way for me. he seems to shrink as i approach, his hands look rough and his fingernails are dirty. an unhappy look paints his face, there is a sense that he is tired. tired and alone. he stares out the window ,the creases on his face don't fade but deepen, darken as he sinks further into some thought.

interlude

3 young punks board the bus. i call them punks because they don't walk to their seats, they swagger. their hands are shoved deep into their pockets, their chins thrust out defiantly as they talk. there is a brightness in their eyes, and their chortles break the previous moody silence in the bus. they stretch their long legs across the floor of the bus, their high tops shiny against the deep indigo of their jeans that wrap so tightly around their legs. their faces are fresh, and the beginnings of facial hair are barely anywhere to be seen on their faces. but their bravado is old, familiar, and same as those seen in generations before.

another bus

two girls get on the bus. they were previously chatting to each other at the bus stop, but now one slips on her purple headphones and the other takes out her phone. their chatter comes to a complete halt and while they continue to sit side by side, it seems that for now, their worlds are utterly separate and disconnected.

across the aisle

there is a woman, she is well-dressed. her large hoop earrings dangle from her ears and her white coat seems clean, well kept. her hair is swept up in what i suppose you would call a french bun. she blinks repeatedly and squints, as if her eyes hurt from something. she checks her phone periodically, possibly awaiting some update or new message. or perhaps she is just impatient to get home. each quick glance at her phone is followed up with a sigh, and or a frown. her tiredness is the same as that in all of us

the chair in front of me

there is a young man on the bus. he gives up his seat for an older woman. his smile is gentle and her face just lights up. she takes his seat and even though he quickly returns into his world (reading his papers), her smile stays on her face for quite a while. and she, though initially plain, is beautiful.