You see it but it doesn’t register
because your shopping list or what
she said is playing on the silver
screen of your mind and suddenly
you want to get out of that line,
waiting at the crossbuck and follow
that train to see what you think
you saw because it was the coolest
piece of art on a train ever.
But you can’t and it’s gone.
And those artists, those spray can
kings risk jail and worse to
put it there trespassing at night
across fences and tracks to
place beautiful woman or political
statements where they know they
won’t be painted over because
it’s too expensive to do. It’s called
graffiti by those who don’t like
it but it’s art by any other name.
And those rolling, rusted, steel
canvases travel across the country
and the artists remain unnamed
to all who see it.
Unnamed and unclaimed art for
free and all in the name of
freedom of expression and a risk
worth taking to be free.