The schoolgirl's
shredded tunic
flashes buttocks
as she stumbles
down the steps.

She rocks her head
against the concrete
of the underpass,
but can't dislodge
her memory:

the routine rattle
of the train;
the blank civility
of those who have
sublet their violence;

amid the crush
that boring afternoon,
the hands that
snaked from nowhere
holding scissors.