The Tube by Daniele Nunziata

Poetry by Daniele Nunziata

The Tube

Eyes down. Hood up. Collar around the neck.

Disengage. Pretend no one else around exists.

The tube is packed with bodies,

The streets crowded with corpses,

But they stopped being human,

Like me,

The moment they left their houses.

The tubes criss-cross in a pattern without end.

The set times telling you how long to spend.

Can’t waste time. Must rush in.

Fill up all the space before you’re crushed in.

Time to go. Time has gone. It’s Time!

Time too short to finish this –

As we follow the escalator up.

Daniele Nunziata is a Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford. He researches postcolonial writing, with a focus on Cyprus and the rest of the Middle East. Born in London to a family of refugees and migrants, his creative works explore his cultural upbringing. His poems have been published in numerous journals and websites including, most recently, the Oxonian Review, Open House, and Life-Writing of Immeasurable Events.