Tickets Please

They file in,
in endless lines,
to buy a ticket to freedom.
Each person makes a choice,
Or no choice at all.
The first still too young,
The second too old,
The third gives up comfort for sustainability.
Some hold their ticket dear, in purses or sweaty hands.
Others discard it, minds meditating on bigger thoughts.
Strangers gather together, shoulder to shoulder.
But hearts couldn’t be further a-p-a-r-t:
Social, racial, and age barriers dissolve.
The ticket can not discriminate.
Simply stamped with a TIME and DATE
And numbers for people, places, money.
And yet here there’s so much more-
Because what really lies right at the core
Of the simple paper bus ticket
Is a silent unity that it seems the world has lost.