There's a tv screen
On a train
Playing endless 
Black and white movies
No sound
The silent type
Of a man 
Or a woman
Or both
Running at slightly
The wrong speed
Sometimes colliding
Sometimes missing
Always carrying
A certain look 
Of lost helplessness
Occasionally
A sentence
Flickers 
On the screen
And I'm never sure
Whether the message
Is for me
Or for them
Or for the other
Strange passengers
It seems to carry
Something of
Importance 
Of which I can't
Quite fathom
Whilst a man
Sits next to me
Clicking a button
Counting his prayers
Or the minutes 
Of my life
As it washes 
Through 
The sewers
And the black and white
Figures
Play out their
Dark comedy
One hundred years 
Ago 
Their parody
Of our lives
An alarum
From the past
Sometimes 
It seems we travel
Great distances
To get
Nowhere