I love the subway poems: those "Poetry in Motion" posters with the cheesy designs that would fit squarely on the wall of your high school cafeteria. The words feel like a respite for my TikTok-addled attention span, obliterated by work and texts and endless scrolling. The bowels of the subway system and its spotty cell service force my eyes out of a slack-jawed stare and onto something both unexpected and beautiful: public art.
Riding an uptown A train last week, I spotted one of my favorites, "Origin Story" by Jenny Xie, projected onto one of the train's digital screens. "I was profligate like a floodlight to the sun. Hoarded saccharine and toothmarks, wanted only"—what exactly? The poem cut off before I could finish the third line, leaving me staring at eight vampirically-dressed K-pop idols promoting their concert at Citi Field.
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