Stream of Conscience[ness]

Tonight - coming home - I waited for the Q train on an empty subway platform….feeling tired, lonely - and alone. As I stood there.…gradually, I became aware of what sounded like a babbling brook. I looked around – and, to my delight – there it was! A river of water ran down the very center of the tracks. The sound of a gentle stream in that underground concrete desert was refreshing...and as I stood entranced, listening to its soothing voice, I noticed a young rat had made her way out of the shadows, over the iron railing to the edge of the “stream”.

She paused and looked around for a long while…taking in her surroundings, scanning for danger….then she slowly lowered the front part of her body over the edge, hanging on precariously with her hind legs to the concrete “bank”…I watched her fishing around in the water with her tiny and delicate front paws….suddenly, she seized a piece of food, caught in an eddy of the current. She scrambled back over the railing and disappeared into her hole in the wall. After a minute - out she popped and this time decided to meander down the stream…

As I watched her, I noticed a man further down the subway station, crouched down on the platform and studying her movements with great interest. Together, we observed her navigate her way along the stream…in and out of the water – sniffing here and there….and I started to wonder what he saw as he watched her so intently.

Did he see a beautiful, dappled brown creature, with bright and alert eyes, wonderful twitching whiskers and pretty pink paws? Did he notice her quick intelligence and incredible adaptability? Did he think about her struggles to survive and wonder at this gift of sanity and nature – the flowing stream and the wild animal at our feet – far from the fresh air and natural light?



...Or did he merely see a DIRTY RAT?



I guess I’ll never know…
....the train came, we boarded different cars – and traveled into the night.

The rat? She’s home – safe and snug – in her house on the banks of that babbling brook.

...and me? Well, I’m not so lonely now….



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