Bus stories 5

It's not always drama
206 bus north on Normandie and Manchester
Real folks
Not TV drama folks
Man holding his baby girl on his lap
Feeding her a bottle

Bus driver says hello and smiles
Old black woman in white
Gets off the bus and says
Good day everybody
We answer
Good day
Sometimes the ride is easy

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Normandie and King
40 bus west on King
Black man with his two young beautiful sons
The youngest is asleep at their stop on King and Western
As the father wakes up the child
He instructs the older one
To hold onto the pole
Hold on hard
He says
What an appropriate message to a young black man
Hold on hard

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Sitting on the bus stop on King and Leimert
Thankfully this stop has a bench I can sit on
Many of them don't
Too many
Why?
Why not a place to sit

A black older man wearing denim overalls with no shirt
Shoes too big and matted afro
Asked me for a quarter
I gave him two
And wondered what both of those quarters will do

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On the 40 west on King
Easy bus day
Easy

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Business done at the post office on Crenshaw and 39th
Jumped on the 210 north on Crenshaw
To the red line at Hollywood and Vine
Two brothas in the back philosophizing
Cool conversation at first
Then I realized I didn't feel like hearing
Any of it
Wondered why I was at all

Dudes, keep your voices down and talk amongst yourselves
"See, that's why brothas need to stick togetha"
"But brothas aint gon stick togetha 'cause
Everybody just tryina come up"
And on and on

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I'm on my way to pick up a
New batch of my cds 'cause I sold the last of what I had
Last night at the Poetry Lounge
I'm heading to Burbank and Sepulveda
Got on the 154 going the wrong way
So now I'm at the layover stop at the Burbank station
Waiting for the driver to finish his break

Where's the guy selling tacos when
You're looking for him?

Breaks over

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Overall it's been a pretty polite day on the bus(es)

Wow, the bus driver just stopped at a stop
Where an old lady is standing
He opened the door and said
"I'm just stopping to say hi"

"Oh hey there, did you get my email?
I see you all are losing some of your drivers"

It was a short chat, but still
Let's move it

What a difference of food options
On the bus line in Burbank
As opposed to South Central
In L.A. there is a McDonalds,
Taco Bell, Burger King and or KFC
On most every corner
I haven't seen any of those yet out here

Here there are more restaruants
Better food on the busy streets
Hooters, Corner Bakery, IHop

There are TV monitors on the
Metro buses and usually they show
Weather reports, local news, trivia
Right now there is a black woman on talking about
How to prepare collard greens

The high schoolers are getting on now
Quiet time gone

There's the McDonalds
I knew they couldn't stay hidden for long

I am so sleepy

The white looking Mexican dude
Walking with the black and white dudes
Has on a black hat that says
Compton

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WINNER!!!

I was sitting on the 210 bus stop
On Sunset and Vine and saw an Iranian guy with a t shirt that said
I love eating pussy