Petals on a wet, black bough.

I’m from a semi-rural town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s called Shingle Springs.  But I served my mission in Sao Paulo, the biggest city in North and South America.  So when I showed up in the mission field, I was surprised (and relieved) to NOT be met by massive crowds of people on the streets.

But…if I ever dared to go down the metro station escalator, especially around rush hour, this is what I would see:

Apparition = a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, especially a ghost; anything that appears, especially something remarkable or startling.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound is a haiku-inspired poem that describes an encounter with a metro station crowd.  Like most haiku, this one contains a natural world image.  But I find this particular image rather disturbing.  The bough is black instead of brown or green.  It sounds dead to me.  At least, if I were a petal, I wouldn’t trust it to bring me life-sustaining nutrients.  Without a living bough, petals have no real connection one with another.  They are just like the faces in a typical metro crowd, who despite close proximity, try hard to avoid eye contact.  They are just like ghosts.

On another note, do you like this shirt from snorgtees.com?  :)