In college, you rode the Red Line
backpack thrust into the morning rush
First brushes with the city’s sins
Leers and creeping fingers
playing here comes the spider on your thigh
before your 9 a.m. Aesthetics of Film class
The Blue Line took you to boyfriends’ houses
and carried you home from parties
your tequila laugh loud and boisterous
over the rumble of the wheels
going up and down through tunnels
like the curving back of a Chinese dragon
People say you have to grow up sometime
The Brown Line, full of suits and newspapers
drenched in sunlight and
rattling through prime real estate
a hamster wheel between condos and cubicles
and then you get really old
and ride the Metra
Drinkers with Writing Problems 