Tokyo Commuters

Commuting
---- Big Frank Dickinson

"The many as noticed by the one:
The noticed one confusing itself with the many
Yet perceives itself as an individual
Traveling between two fixed points."
--- John Ashberry

I, the one with the shify eyes, can understand
That I will probably never ever see these
People whom I am so close to now again;
I pay no attention to them whatsoever.
They don't seem to be paying any attention
To me either; that the unspoken agreement
We have with each other - be nice, but don't look.
Well, I'm not looking . . . at them, I'm looking out
Beyond them out the window of this train at
A foreigner who is taking my picture!
As this train moves off a little piece of me
Stays behind in this stranger's camera as
A collection of digital dots that will be shown
Perhaps, to others, but I will not be commented on;
I will not be seeen. I am a stage prop of sorts
For his photo of Tokyo commuters doing what we
Are doing because we are Tokyo commuters
And what is it that we are doing? We commute, which
Really is just a matter of putting all of us in this car
And then waiting until the right station (should I have
Gotten off here?); before we stop being commuters
And start being part of a moving throng which
Holds us in its collective mass until, pretty much
Until I get home when I then become just me;
But nobody is going to take my picture then,
Unless it's some kind of celebration or holiday,
When my relatives or friends save the images
Or at least capture them to be saved, which
They probably are, but only looked at once
Or maybe twice. I wonder how many times
This foreigner is going to look at us commuters?