Prompt #10 (for December 24th): Write a poem about the photograph below—which I snagged from some random Facebook post a year or so ago and don’t know how to credit. Try incorporating some of what you see into a “Just before this…”/”Right now…”/”And then…” narrative. Consider having your title serve as your first or last line—or merely number it as if this poem were one in a series. Ready? Steady… Go~~~
Heads down, on uptown train
The jostling faithful endures.
(O come, with frigid fingers
Cold cheeked and triumphant)
A crackling intercom
Produces staticked fragments
The next stop, presumably –
No one knows for sure.
And then
A man in a tree
Or, a man AND a tree
Shuffles on
Consumed by needles and lights
Exuding holiday.
Around him, passengers glance
Blink, taking in his festival garb
And go right back
To their phones.