The Healthier Option (Poetry)

Awash with gabble — morning’s bus
chockful of drama, so much fuss —
everything is ‘Oh, my God!’
loud tongues race off, dull IQs plod

Conversations ultra-shrill
they hardly pause for breath until
some child in competition bawls
in protest and attention falls

on an awakened red-faced brat
exploding with such fury that
it interrupts their têtê-á-têtê
with foul emissions leaking wet

Shrieks of horror — Oh, the pong!
that wafts the crowded seats among
commuters gagging — white as chalk
alight next stop and opt to walk