Transport

The waiting crowd performs the little shuffle forth and back from the platform’s edge, taking turns to observe for any sign of the train’s arrival, passing and repassing one another in a sort of dance. This in lieu of any overt communication amongst themselves—there is no word from those who step forward, nor even the little shake of the head that would concisely signify ‘not yet’. The more astute observers of body language among the waiting attempt to divine from the bearing of the steppers forward whether the train is finally approaching, obviating the need for them, the astute observers, to step forward themselves. Signs like the taking out of a ticket, the hovering nearer the platform edge post-observation, continuing to observe, the impatient sway of the expectant waiting—these are not guarantees, and there is often a short-lived domino effect wherein something in the behaviour of the initial stepper forward triggers another of the waiting to prepare for the phantom train’s approach, which preparation triggers others to do the same, and so on in a cascade of false assurance of imminent reprieve. This phenomenon makes the crowd look something like one organism, stretching and then tensing for a leap. As the realisation strikes them, one by one but also collectively, they afterwards dissipate back into their default stance of pre-emptive disappointment. All of which serves to add the necessary variety to the experience of waiting, being easily observable and interesting and a bit like a dance, if you care to look.

Slumped

Slumped over there on the bench a homeless man has his head, hooded, tilted downwards at such an angle that it looks like something protruding from lower down his chest, continuous with the chest. He is utterly clothed, all clothing, without an inch of skin visible, such that you would believe if you were told that there was no man in there, just a carefully arranged selection of objects, a football for the head, say, placed lovingly on the bench and draped in clothes, for the sole purpose of communicating with absolute precision the meaning of the word: slumped.