Eating alone in
a city where even the smells are unfamiliar,
Passing by the subway station, which resembled a temple with crowds
of strangers jostling shoulders as they rushed
by,
I live each day like a grueling ordeal, suppressing
my anger, overlooking
rudeness and insults, and fixating
on proving my worth,
I run on the treadmill as if it were a mission, passing
through the city’s complex intersections and gazing
at the night view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
In this autumn that makes me want to cry,
