A Stranger on The Train

By Shaina Cintron

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because 

Because I feel the deep stare of your eyes

the empty blink,  

With one agenda in mind.  

The wanting,  

yearning for a drink.  

The empty sip  

leading to your next high.  

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because the system put in place to tell you sweet lies  

lied about the help you were denied.  

The deep, dark slope of nothingness  

took over your mind,  

washed away your dreams

a hit here, a hit there,  

Just to escape.  

All of this.  

This life.  

That sweet, otherworldly bliss,  

that magical realm  

where you swore you felt something before 

a drowning sensation of  

“I need more”  

and  

“I can’t do this anymore!” 

too...  

“Where am I?” 

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because we are standing on this packed train,  

watching you dive into your next hit  

of empty lies.  

Because 

because this world is too much for your soul.  

Your vessel  

dimmed with nothingness,  

a blink away from emptiness.  

We continue to act  

like you don’t exist.  

“Who robbed you, friend?” 

Who stole your innocence,  

Your will to live in this world?  

Who took the many dimensions  

You could have lived in,  

with just a glimpse of help,  

of healing?  

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because while we watch,  

This too-packed train moves forward,  

as you lay stretched across the chair,  

lost in another world,  

abandoned in this one.  

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because the soul in me  

wants to reach out to yours 

Pull it back into that vessel  

that has suffered too much torture.  

To wake it up,  

to whisper:  

“There is more.” 

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because the line between you and me  

is ever so thin.  

Because the system that broke you  

is slowly closing in on me, too.  

And I

I just don’t know what to do anymore.  

The light that once flourished in your eyes  

It's dimming out mine.  

Not so long ago, I was high on life,  

Now I am scared for mine.  

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because I can still see a flicker,  

blinking in and out of your eyes,  

But no one knows the quietness  

that ties you to here.  

That ties us here.

I’m uncomfortable.  

Because the lies we were told  

left a mark so deep,  

None of us can see  

What is the truth  

And what is a lie?  

I’m sorry we failed you.  

By Shaina Cintron