Signal Problems

Signal Problems
“Everyone’s going to work well not me I’m not going to work.”
– James Moore

Excuse me sir are those—
Sir, I’m going to have to ask—
Sir, don’t block the subway door
      with your bundled lifetime of regrets.

The nameless ghosts of there but for the grace
      of sheer bad luck and poor decisions
      of guilt and guilt and idiot shame—

They fester like corroded wiring
      hunger like the living
      for something they can’t name.

The lights flicker and the train stops
      and we all put down the Economist,
      stare and meet no eye and—

And now what? Nobody’s going
      to work now.