Nostalgia

August 14, 2018 | Sheldon Johnson

Performed in The strength of Our Convictions:  The Auburn Redemption, Sheldon “Superb” Johnson uses this piece to elaborate on one way he breaks up the monotony of incarceration.  “Superb” also reflects on how much longer he will have a relationship with the train he watches go by on a daily basis.

Bam, Bam, Bam…

I look through the bars

Beyond another set of bars

Through the window of bars

Over a daunting wall.

Bam, Bam, Bam…

It’s the train.

One, Two, Three.

I count the cars

Admiring the artistry of graffiti

That appears atiquitious (antique?)

The other day,

I watched a man

And his dog walk casually

Freely, nonchalant.

He stops to watch,

No

We admire the dog carelessly

Chase his tail

In dizzying circles

I laughed so hard,

My stomach hurt.

Two hundred yards away, all

My visions materialize

“Shorty, ayo Ma,

I see you girl, do yo thing.”

A guy screams

As if she can really hear him.

Bam Bam, Bam…

Still trucking’

Twenty- seven cars later

I wonder what that train

Would look like

Seventeen years from now.

Would it remember these

Moments we shared?

I take off in a sprint

Side-by-side.

I try and keep up.

Bam, Bam, Bam…

It’s difficult to discern a pattern

It just keeps passing us by

Even from within,

This triple encasement

Thumbs up, I hitch a ride.