21. A Spring Commute or Mass Transit

A Spring Commute or Mass Transit

Sick really
that the smell of flowers
the overwhelming flood
of scent when leaving the subway
reminds me of Disney—
fields of them (in memory)
between this or that
hollow façade.

But

I step out
onto Houston,
heading south, and the wind
carries me South, onward.
I am a boy in boy’s costume;
I sip sweet tea and beg for candy.
There is no step more thrilling
than a single step home

in the spring of your first year away
after your first winter without them.