In transit - 15" on a light rail forever

A vignette posted in honor of three new light rail station openings in Seattle, October 2021!

With my eyes closed, I can still feel the gentle rocking side to side. There are slight mechanical sounds, the source unseen. A murmur of voices, words indistinguishable, but mostly I am alone with my thoughts. I stand, one hand holding up my bike, the other on a pole. It’s coming soon. There it is --jolt! A jerk in the tracks, another, then more smooth speeding. A smaller jolt. There are always three, then we continue.

Rocking side to side, left-right, left-right. Hurtling forward. I look outside. It’s dark, a glimpse here of letters scrawled. A flash of a name in script. A service door. Pipes, pipes. But mostly it’s dark, like we are on a clumsy vessel in space, rushing rushing through distances untold. Constellations of graffiti and pipes, blurred. So fast. It feels like we are suspended and the pipes are flowing streams of metal

In

This

Moment.

Left-right, left-right. I could stay like this for ever.  On my way. About to get there. Just left, just starting. Left-right. Left-right. Left-right.

The new University District Station, 10.02.10

First draft: 05.31.19 7AM

Post-script note, 2021: for the record, when I rode the renewed line between Roosevelt Station to downtown last, the sailing was smooth between the UW and Capitol Hill Stations so it seems they fixed that awkward jerking on the tracks from when I first wrote this.