“Former African Despot Mobutu Sese Seko is a Subway Conductor on the 6 Train,” by Emily Buckler

Apr 20th, 2016 | By | Category: Fiction, Prose

Spring Street. Stand clear of the closing doors. This train will skip Bleecker—I do not care for it. Transfers to the 4, B, D, F, and M trains must use my brother Rodney’s special car service.

This is Astor Place, transfer to Rodney. Rodney accepts cash, traveler’s checks, money order, VISA, MasterCard, attractive women, and this bubbly pink champagne I like. Fourteenth Street is next.

Attention, passengers. We are experiencing a momentary delay. We will begin moving shortly once we receive signal clearance… and a passenger provides an appropriate gift.

This is Fourteenth. Transfer to the L, N, Q, 4, 5, and 6 trains, unless you are that beautiful woman in the first car wearing the leopard print coat. You shall transfer to me.

Stand clear of the closing doors. The next person to hold the doors will be publicly executed. Twenty-third Street is next.

Twenty-third Street. This is a Parkchester-bound 6 train, making all local stops until Fifty-third Street. At Fifty-third Street, this train will experience significant delays while I hand over conducting duties to my first-born son.

Twenty-eighth Street. Man holding the doors: Come to the conductor’s window, please.

————

Defenestration-Emily BucklerEmily Buckler is an editor and writer in New York. Her work has appeared in The Southampton Review and Open Palm Print. An MFA candidate in creative writing and literature at Stony Brook University, she lives in Brooklyn.

Tags: , , , ,

Comments are closed.