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Ode to the 76
by Jason DeShaw
Oh Metro
76, why do I wait for you?
It's not because of your prompt arrival, oh no,
You laugh in the face of timely schedules.
How can you be leaving 5th and Cherry at 5:27,
When you've already passed 7th and 43rd?
I leave at 5:25 everyday, on the dot,
Yet as I walk toward the stop I see you pass,
Or I wait twenty-five minutes.
Is that you I see in the distance 76?
No, that is just the 316, and the 355,
and the 64, and the North Base, and the To Terminal.
Where you are 76?
No, it is not because of your prompt arrival,
Because you are either too early or too late.
You laugh in the face of timely schedules.
Oh Metro 76, why do I take you?
It's not because I like standing in the rain, oh
no,
The rain is far from my friend.
It falls on me, soaks me, drenches me,
And I'm wet before I get to work,
where I get wet.
All because I wait for you 76,
And your "prompt" arrival.
No, its not because I like standing in the rain,
As you often make me do.
The rain is far from my friend.
Oh Metro 76, why do I ride you?
It's not because the bus is comfortable, oh no,
I don't enjoy standing.
By the time I manage to catch you,
The whole world already has.
"Behind the yellow line," the driver says,
As I can't physically get behind it.
I grab the bars above my head and squeeze my feet back.
I become the leaning tower of please-ah get this over with.
As I surf down I-5 towards the land of Crepes,
All I can think is how I just missed my last chance to sit.
We arrive at the Ravenna Park and Ride,
Where everyone gets off.
I squish myself all the way to the right, to the left,
So everyone can push by me and get out.
All I can think is, "Why doesn't this bus come more often,
It would be a lot less of a hassle."
No, it's not because the bus is comfortable,
I always have to stand and,
I don't enjoy standing.
Metro 76, you are the ugly duckling of the 70s
Why can't you be more like the 71, 72, or even the 73?
Those are buses I can respect,
Buses I can look up to.
But not you, 76, not you.
So then why?
Why do I ride the Metro 76?
Is it because it is the closest?
Is it because it drops me off right outside work?
Or is it because, 76, there are those days,
Those days when I walk to the stop and check my watch,
I look down the road, and there you are,
Right on time.
And you pull up to me, 76, and your doors open,
And when I get on, there it is,
A seat waiting for me.
No pushing, no shoving, only glorious sitting.
Maybe that is why I ride you 76.
Then I think again and realize no,
That isn't why.
It is because you are the closest,
And it is because you drop me off right outside work.
Why does it have to be you Metro 76?
Why?
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