Standing at a lonely concourse

[71degrees]

Spat from the shuttle bus
clutching an unwanted ticket
for an unchosen destination.
Two terminals between us
and oceans of sky.
No courage mustered for the final goodbye.

Your colour dimming now
bleached by the pallid grey
of neon fluorescence and linoleum.
No solace or sympathy found
in transient faces
obliviously headed for faraway places.

Aimlessly searching
for direction in directionless signs
and absently obeying orders
from unseen voices;
relieved for once
to be absolved of trying choices.

Snailing queues
past traveller's trappings,
fragrance and books and chocolate and news.
"Do you have checked baggage?
Did you pack this bag yourself?"
All I have to carry
I carry on myself.

Egg boxed
in a comfortless seat
seeing only sideways
while staring straight ahead
and leaning backwards
into what-if's and insteads.

Click and clank and clunk
clouds are broken
wheels are up.
"Do you have anything else to declare?"
Only that until the end
I will always care
for my complicated lover
and the simplest of any friend.

"the" goodbye or "our" goodbye or even "my" goodbye. It's the little words that set up a poem...sometimes. I need something at the beginning for me to care about this person. I understand he's been spit out like so much chewed tobacco. I love "terminus" as a foreshadow. Pretty nit picky but why is the destination "unchosen" if he has a ticket? I get it but it lacks logic. Not much concrete (I guess what I'm saying is the first two stanzas are a maze of abstractions) except for a ticket and linoleum flooring. Not sure that's enough for me. Compare that to the 4th stanza (e.g. "fragrance and books and chocolate and news."). Now this puts me there.

When all is said and done I still don't know why this guy is such a sad-sack (sorry, I'm assuming narrator is "he"). Even w/all angst mustered, I am left with a simple "complicated" and "simple" friend. I would expect more bile based on the rest of the poem. It seems to me the poem is more about atmosphere then the relationship and I am disappointed that it isn't the other way around given the start. Favorite line: "Do you have anything to declare?" Boy, I was waiting for something really good. Still waiting.