Getting off the Bus
Adele Mendelson
It’s not being dead I mind so much
because once you’re gone, you’re gone, right?
Peaceful, like sleep, like before you were born.
And how else would you want it?
some noncorporal part of yourself
wandering the stratosphere,
Looking for what?
A lot of people would like to be reborn.
But, think about it, wasn’t this life enough for you?
Do you want more allergies, hair loss, credit card debt,
D-minus‘s, weight gain, broken hearts
and worn-out motor mounts?
No, it’s not death I mind so much
It’s getting off the bus, missing
the ride, the city a motion picture out the window,
the passengers nutso, just like me, the way they laugh too loud,
argue about baseball, tell vulgar jokes, and give someone a dollar
cause he looks like he needs it
And the skinny teenager sitting in the back
turns on his radio a loud thumping beat
and two high school girls in pleated skirts, get up and dance
then the joints go around along with the beer
and even the driver is singing.
It’s the pretty Latina in a tight red skirt,
who sits down beside me
flirting with her body, saying
“Don’t you have a girlfriend, guapo?”
No, it’s not being dead I’ll mind.
It’s getting off the bus, and watching it drive on without me.
because once you’re gone, you’re gone, right?
Peaceful, like sleep, like before you were born.
And how else would you want it?
some noncorporal part of yourself
wandering the stratosphere,
Looking for what?
A lot of people would like to be reborn.
But, think about it, wasn’t this life enough for you?
Do you want more allergies, hair loss, credit card debt,
D-minus‘s, weight gain, broken hearts
and worn-out motor mounts?
No, it’s not death I mind so much
It’s getting off the bus, missing
the ride, the city a motion picture out the window,
the passengers nutso, just like me, the way they laugh too loud,
argue about baseball, tell vulgar jokes, and give someone a dollar
cause he looks like he needs it
And the skinny teenager sitting in the back
turns on his radio a loud thumping beat
and two high school girls in pleated skirts, get up and dance
then the joints go around along with the beer
and even the driver is singing.
It’s the pretty Latina in a tight red skirt,
who sits down beside me
flirting with her body, saying
“Don’t you have a girlfriend, guapo?”
No, it’s not being dead I’ll mind.
It’s getting off the bus, and watching it drive on without me.
Adele Mendelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, during the days that the Cuyahoga burned. She moved to San Francisco when she was nineteen to attend college and become a hippy. She earned a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language and had a twenty-year career in the English Language Program at the University of California at Berkeley. Adele has produced four volumes of poetry. The most recent, Living on Earth, 2d Ed., will be available on Amazon in August 2022. She reads her poetry at venues around the San Francisco Bay Area. She has also written numerous short stories and a novel, After the War, Zari and Sarah. She is currently at work on a novella, Becoming Anju in India.
