untitled poem

somewhere else
i passed through fields once
simultaneous in their green
lushness and
barren stark light
from the window of the train i
watched children peek from
behind ruined houses and
pressed my hand against the glass
to touch them

the man sitting across from me saw only
garbage slipping across the grass
mumbled something about
people who don't know how to
throw away their trash and apparently
want to live in their own filth
got irritated and moved away
when i insisted that
disenfranchisement looks an
awful lot like laziness

and i wondered how neatly trimmed
his life would be without that
coat and the latest gear
without the chance to feel better
than someone else
without the chance to throw
his own trash out the window of the train