Help me find a poem about an whole alternate life on a train ride

August 6, 2020 2:55 PM

I read this poem in either Harpers or New Yorker years ago. I have searched the archives of both sites and can't find it, so my last thought was perhaps Metafilter will know. The poam is about a person (can't remember man or woman) who shares a glance with another passenger on a train, i'm almost certain is the NYC subway. The train continues and the writer imagines this entire life with this other person...

They travel together as the train runs off the rails and somehow they sort of fly through their entire other life, then the train arrives and life resumes unchanged.

It's simple and beautiful and it just needles my brain that I can't remember it. Like a poetry version of the Star Trek Next Generation "The Inner Light" episode... I wish i had more details but that's all I've got.

posted by carlodio to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

I wonder if you might be thinking of "Asking for Directions" by Linda Gregg. Its pretty far from what you describe, but its got Manhattan, a train, and two people who are going their separate ways after the end of the poem.
posted by foxonisland at 4:11 PM on August 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: That jarred my memory, although the item I recalled was a short story posted to Brooklyn’s Missed Connections about a shared glance, with the narrator never getting the courage to say anything, yet they both continue to ride the train for 60 years.
posted by icaicaer at 4:38 PM on August 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

This isn't what you're looking for, but will scratch the same itch, I bet.
posted by shadygrove at 5:37 PM on August 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

If it's that missed connections story, which was my guess too, it's by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (of BoJack Horseman fame) and appears in his book Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory, which I highly recommend if the missed connections story is up your alley.
posted by babelfish at 9:11 PM on August 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: My god i can't express the joys of Metafilter to the unwashed masses. That Brooklyn Missed Connections post was *exactly* what I was remembering. Not a poem, I guess. But still, needle removed from brain. Thanks icaiaer!!!!!
posted by carlodio at 12:47 PM on August 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I loved rereading it, so thanks for that! I met my partner of seven years on the subway, so that sort of story sticks with me. Luckily, I had enough courage to say something.
posted by icaicaer at 6:43 PM on August 7, 2020

I acknowledge that you have found the answer to your question, but for anyone interested in similar stories, this item appeared in Craigslist Missed Connections in 2014: We were married for three days in 1989, and I saw you on the subway.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:35 PM on August 8, 2020 [2 favorites]