Next time you’re on the platform, waiting for the Q train to come alive, begging your phone for cell service, sweating your brains out and hating everyone around you — take a moment to look around at the beautiful strangers around you. Who knows, you could end your morning commute like these two lovebirds.
Today’s piece of visual poetry, titled “Subway Love,” is brought to you by Brooklyn-based poet Max Stossel and cinematographer Matthew Freidell. The uplifting short, which has over 150,000 views on YouTube, turns a mundane subway trip into a whimsical tango between potential lovers.
Stossel came up with the concept while waiting at the West 4th Street stop and realizing the ridiculousness of the subway ritual. “It was one of those times where it was taking forever and it was hot and sweaty and more and more people came and it got hotter and sweatier,” he told the Daily Mail. “And all of the sudden I had this realization that we were 250 people staring into a tunnel.”
What if, Stossel asks, we paid attention to the myriad people around us? Could we learn something new? Make a friend? Fall in love?
As the poem reads:
If we would only turn and face each other we might catch eyes and to our surprise the anguish of waiting might subside. We might not be so terrified of being late to work this time. Our jobs that make us sigh and cry we might stop and reanalyze. We might, I hope, even decide that we can make better use of our time. We could enjoy this mariachi band. Come, take my hand and let’s pretend these fluorescents are the moon and this grimy subway floor the sand. Let’s just dance.
Anyone who’s ever dreamed of finding love on the subway, this is for you.
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