CAKE | 03 — Commuting

The man who pretended to sleep while rubbing his leg on mine.
The man sitting across from me also reading The New Yorker, prompting me to smile at him and who stared at me as if I had proposed something horrendous to him.
The older lady knitting on the train who suddenly started shouting obscenities at a homeless woman. 
The kid who was constantly murmuring to himself that one day he will have as much food he wants. As many plates filled with food as he wants. And the man who yelled at him to shut the fuck up.
The old man reading a textbook and studying German.
The two boys badgering and touching a girl, forcing her to retreat into a corner and hide her face in a hoodie.
The dad who used to bring his young son to the train always kissing him goodbye.
The Polish ladies having conversations I could listen in on.
The little girl who beamed when looking through the library books she checked out with her dad.
All those men spreading their legs and forcing me to huddle.
The very handsome guy who I couldn’t help but stare at until he picked up his cell phone and started talking in a deep Saxon accent.
The teenage girls trying out cheap drugstore perfumes while sitting across from me.
The construction worker drinking from a can of beer at 8:45 in the morning.
The business man with his baby daughter sitting in a stroller and clutching a pink stuffed pig to her chest that was almost as big as her.
The woman getting into an otherwise empty train car and proceeding to sit down right across from me.
The people eating doner kebab on the train.
The young angry looking woman applying make-up on the train for half an hour every morning.
The guy with headphones making everybody else listen in on his music.
The strung out guy high on something whispering lovingly to his dog.
The old Nazi prick who got up from his seat as soon as a black man sat down next to him.
The guy with the big belly and a briefcase never wearing a coat, not even in the most frigid temperatures.
All the men sweating and smelling up the train in the summer.
The dressed up teenage girls taking the train into the city in the evening laughing at text messages.
The football fans crowding the train car with white-blue caps and scarves.
The man clipping his fingernails next to me.
The group of old people in tan safari like clothes complaining loudly about graffiti. 
The guy who was watching every one of my moves, staring at me the entire ride and who followed me out of the train.
The woman with a baby carriage standing at the platform infront of the stairs being passed by men.
The brown eyed woman who will finally be able to ride her bike to work starting this fall.