He is fanning himself with one of those cheap Japanese fans. It has a black plastic frame and stiff black fabric with white flowers printed on it. He is fanning himself at a pace perhaps two notches below “furiously.” His face is illuminated by the iPad in his lap, small beads of perspiration shining underneath…
Category: Subway Inspirations
People watching on the subway
Observation Found in Ovid
Grey t-shirt, hands tucked into loose shorts, a backpack between his shins. He has strong legs. Tight calves, his weight balanced on the balls of his feet ready to spring. Dark close cut hair and impenetrable shades blocking his eyes from sight.
NYC Monday Morning
They have the shell-shocked, thousand-yard, dead-eyed stare of war survivors, but it’s really just NYC on a Monday morning. They stare vacantly at the opposite wall and he has his hand on her thigh. After a few minutes she regains some awareness and starts aimlessly looking around the train.
Chipper Giant
When he initially got on the train he stood next to me and even with my shoulders back, standing as tall as I could, the top of my head barely made it to the middle of is bicep. As soon as the seat behind us opened up he all but flung himself into it and…
Instruments of Survival
She brushes on her smile with her foundation. One hand holding her compact and mirror, the other working the smile deep into the contours of her face, cementing it in for the rest of the day. As the morning rushes by her outside the train she paints her eyes open and shades them from ill…
Gravity
Her face looks pained and sorrowful. Her brows pinched together in pain or concentration. Her straightened red hair is partially tucked behind her ears, the rest of it hanging over them to mostly hide them from view. She has white ear buds in and her mouth is down-turned. Every part over her face seems to…
Gone to Seed
She reminds me of a high powered woman who works in my building, if she had gone to seed. She is wearing turquoise satin pants and has a backpack with technicolor cats on it. Her hair is poofy and her bangs fall into her face while the rest is pulled back into a high bun….
Sleeping and Pouting
He looks like he is sleeping and pouting, not reading on his tablet which I can clearly see him fiddling with, flipping through articles of the Economist. Head tilted down to look at the screen, his eyes lowered to read, he appears asleep, but his lips slightly pushed out giving him a resting pout face….
Not Quite Motorcyclist
He looks like a motorcyclist except for his blinged out chrome gold sneakers and the furry scarf that tucks down into his well-fitted black-leather jacket. His form-fitting black jeans are soft and worn in, with three seams at the knees and a checkered pattern between the knees and his front pockets. He doesn’t have much…
Two bags
Two bags between his feet. One is very full, straining a little at the seams. It is olive green with a supple, warm auburn leather on the bottom and black fabric for handles. The second bag is less full and black. His shoes are dark brown leather with little holes for ventilation. His dark blue…
Little Gentian 