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| Image / Cem Dolcan |
Riding the Subway with My Son
For Devan
He said it took a year to learn the routes
and he often got lost because he
fell asleep and woke up far from
his stop.
You don’t need to be a resident to
know how life can speed by before realizing
you were supposed to exit,
but it helps to understand Uptown and
Downtown run in opposite directions and
chess in Central Park is as strategic as
window-shopping along the streets of
SoHo.
How one knows where they’re supposed to be means
learning when to remain seated and when to
get up and pay your way or
jump through the turnstiles,
even if you don’t yet know your way around
the boroughs or your
burgeoning self.
I’m a first-time passenger and sit beside my son,
a twentysomething Brooklyn resident fluent in
traversing the lines,
and we ride through tunnels
that stretch below the earth—
a hazy maze of metal and movement,
not unlike the lifetime relationship between
a parent and child,
and I navigate just how far
we’ve come,
the distance we have yet to
go.
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| Daniel Romo |
Daniel Romo is the author of American Manscape (Moon Tide Press 2026), Bum Knees and Grieving Sunsets (FlowerSong Press 2023), Moonlighting as an Avalanche (Tebot Bach 2021), and other books. His work can be found in The Los Angeles Review, MAYDAY, Yemassee, and elsewhere. He received an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and lives, writes, and rides his bike in Long Beach, CA. More at danieljromo.com.
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