The Sudden Jerk

We read our books and Polish newspapers, stare at our PDAs, fix our eyeliner, lips, and blush, enjoy frivolous phone calls on the mobile, snap voyeur photos of camel toes, expose ourselves, talk into our lapels, run scams for money, perform mariachi music and minstrel acrobatics, lament our workaday anomie, marinade in our apathy, grunt passive-aggressively when lightly brushed by others...and then...the B train takea a sharp turn for the Manhattan Bridge, sending us all flying into each other, if only for a measly second; molecules spontaneously colliding in a container sealed by resignation and routine. And then, like a momentary power interruption, we return to our previously staked positions, acting as cool as humanly possible.