The Waiting Game

Waiting for the bus--on Nicollet Mall, 1973 (Donald Emmerich)

We return to our summer series, Poetry in (Slow) Motion with a poem that concerns that unavoidable condition for the subway or bus passenger, waiting. Waiting for a train or bus to arrive, or waiting for the one you're on to get moving again. Bertolt Brecht's "Changing the Wheel" (tr. Michael Hamburger) seems a good antidote or at least poses a good question for the would be commuter:

I sit by the roadside.
The driver changes the wheel.
I do not like the place I come from.
I do not like the place I am going to.
Why with impatience do I
Watch him changing the wheel?

The photo above is from the Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA series, which set out to "photographically document subjects of environmental concern" (compiled 1972-1977).