After a Storm in the Subway Station by Sean Lynch

Originally published in Hitherto (October 2014).

You breathe while freezing cold and soaking wet

This metal bench will crumble in due time

Still you should fight desiring death and yet

The fate of this tunnel trapped rat seems set

If all else fails, you can clean off some grime

You breathe while freezing cold and soaking wet

Thoughts turn to your hunger and having let

Past hallucinations perpetrate crime

Still you should fight desiring death and yet

You know that you are not worthy of it

Recalling damage done inside from slime

You breathe while freezing cold and soaking wet

This is as bad as it's going to get

The last sand drifts from an offered hand primed

Still you should fight desiring death and yet

While waiting for the train brooding you met

A languid shade who shared a cigarette

You breathe while freezing cold and soaking wet

Still you should fight desiring death and yet

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Sean Lynch is a poet and editor who lives in South Philadelphia. His fourth chapbook, On Violence, was published by Radical Paper Press in 2019. Poems have appeared in journals including Hobart, Poetry Quarterly, and After the Pause. He’s also the Managing Editor for Thirty West Publishing, Founding Editor of Serotonin, and hosts the Moonstone Poetry Reading Series.