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Poem: 'How to Look for a Poem in the Metro'

Writer's picture: AmrutaAmruta

Updated: Jan 7, 2021


There are many ways of looking for a poem in the metro.

You could be a reader of its Lignes et Rimes

Four-line instalments scissored out of their originals

Epic poems, romantic odes or even pop-rock lyrics

That may or may not move you

To look them up when you go home.

(La RATP vous souhaite une année poétique)


You could be a reader of its graffiti,

Of the traces on its steel surfaces scrawled with markers

Protest calls, rally cries, declarations of love and sometimes

Plays on word by some smartass guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

(Et la Laumière fut! This gem spotted on line 5)

You could instead listen to the voice of the RATP

Telling you to mind the gap between the train and the platform

And beware of getting your fingers caught between the closing doors

And you could draw a metaphor with the journey of your life.

(Tous les voyageurs sont invités à descendre, merci)


You could even look at the faces around you

Look past their blank, wearied expressions

And try to imagine what is going on in their minds.

You could eavesdrop on the happy couples, the excessive PDA couples, the quarrelling couples

Steal bits of their conversations and invent dramatic stories about their lives.

(Pour ne pas tenter les pickpockets, fermez bien vos sacs et surveillez vos objets personnels)


How about looking at the rail network map

And imagining each line as a person

Line 1 chic, well-dressed, and ambitious,

Line 7 bis a forlorn, forgotten old man

The RER lines somewhere between precocious teens who want to be part of the cool crowd

And wise old veterans who have become the backbone of society.


If you are a sensual person, you could take pictures, scribble notes

Obsessively listing every sight and sound and smell

Every bell, and whirr and beep;

Every whiff of flowers or takeaway food or pee

For future use in a poem like this.

If you are an introspective sort, you could ponder

The repercussions of missed chances and parallel lives

Every time you missed a train.

(Veuillez nous excuser pour la gêne occasionnée)


There are many ways of looking for a poem in the metro

The best way is to hop on to any line

And wait for the lines to come to you.

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