Unseen Sword

Before the subway train had reached St. Clair,
I looked up from the Russell Hoban book
That I was reading, and began to look
Across at this sweet girl with dark brown hair
Whose hand-held something – cell phone? – made her stare
And start. She violently leaned and shook
One! two! three! times, then stood up straight and took
Herself and her device right out of there.

It looked completely weird and untoward,
The way she shook three times, convulsively
While sitting on the train across from me,
As if she'd been held down and neatly gored.
I looked for villains with an unseen sword,
But nobody was there that I could see.