The Northern Line Poem by Bunny Baker

She has a fake blue flower in her hair
A lanyard round her neck says ‘I have a twitch'
She says people laugh and call her a witch
I smile and tell her, ‘we are nicer in the northern air'

Why do strangers not break a smile?
Impatient and always in a rush
You'd better learn fast to pull and push
Because no one here walks single file

A busker belts out ballads commuters ignore
Maybe one day he'll make the big time
Once he's off the drugs and wine
Right now it's a means to and end for more

Moving stairs that say ‘stand on the right'!
Passing posters of plays and tourist traps
Vacant eyes under fringes and caps
There in the body but gone is the light

That lady with the twitch and flower in her hair
She says she could die and no one will care
But I say I will care and I'll put her in rhyme
About people you meet on the Northern Line