Why a subway station?
Why a cold white corridor?
Is it the acoustics?

Or the constant flow of people?

You’re set up
on a makeshift stage,
music stand, flute,
and instrument case wide open
like a begging hand.

But you’re in a subway station.
The corridor is cold and white.
The acoustics are terrible.
And the crowd is in too much
of a hurry to notice
let alone bear.

Yet many coins
are tossed into your case,
gleam among your sheet music.

You make a living
in the wrong place
with the wrong people.

No wonder
so many of us
board our commuter trains
still whistling that tune.