he sat on the train, holding his mig -29
making the noise of the attack
but his seven-year-old mind was elsewhere
 
his grandparents, tired from the day in the city
slept dreaming of the new york giants
and broadway love songs
 
the bombs dropping became louder
and their sleep became deeper
 
he was safe to take a risk
 
placing the plane down he went into her
purse and found the emery board to file
and polish his nails

he caught another passenger’s eye
and jumped, not wanting the man his father's age
to notice
 
as much as he did
want to be known
 
his temptation to be himself, to be loved as himself
led him to slowly begin to do grandma's nail

softly
 
she twitched and
 
he jumped
 
dropping the board back in her purse
 
he turned to look out the window
but at midnight the only view
was his reflection
 
he removed her lipstick and lotion
 
carefully applying the latter
with the care of a child who never
colored outside of the line

he opened the lipstick as the train
slowed to
their stop
 
with his back turned to her
grandma nudged him and he
quietly tucked the lipstick between
the seat and the train's cold wall
 
turning to her
as she woke grandpa
 
she hadn't seen

when the door closed and the
train moved towards my stop
and the boy long gone

the lipstick hit the floor
landing next to the
mig

Skip Shea is an actor, artist, performer and poet. His one man show Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads) made its debut at the Bowery Poetry Club and his artwork has been shown at chezTGN Gallery in Brooklyn.

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