Bus Ride Across America

the Bus – Travels Through America’s Underbelly I am a bus rider That makes me unusual For a white male From an upper middle class family Our people are not bus riders Though some are subway riders Bus riders are other people The poor, minorities, immigrants People who don’t drive Because they are blind Or have a DUI And in my case I don’t drive Because I have bad vision And bad coordination Just never got the hang Of the whole driving thing Fortunately for me My wife does the driving But I still take the bus From time to time I rode the AC buses in Berkeley As a child Line 67, line 51, line 43 F bus Rode them long before BART came along And afterwards as well As an adult seldom rode the bus But when I did so I was always impressed By the sheer diversity Of the bus riding property Hundreds of languages All sorts of sexual orientation Some were white Most were not Most of my fellow passengers Were nice enough Some were friendly And some were lost In their own thoughts And a few Were scary looking dudes With the look Of someone who had done time And were capable of more violence I also rode the bus In Seattle as a graduate student A lot of fellow UW students And the usual immigrants Minorities etc And some white people Commuting And in DC Over the years I rode a lot of buses Mostly to and from the metro But I got to know And love the DC buses as well I also took the greyhound bus Across the country Several times over the years All over the U.S. From Bay Area to Stockton From Bay Area to Clear Lake From Bay area to NYC NYC to DC All over the USA Taking the Greyhound Was always an an adventure Met a lot of interesting people As people on long distant bus rides Tend to open up and talk To pass the time away Overseas I took the bus All over In India, in Barbados In Spain and in Korea The Korean buses For many years Were difficult for foreign visitors As the signs were all in Korean Most have signs Now in English, Chinese and Korean And are much more foreigner friendly Riding the bus In America Allows one access To the underbelly of American society The poor, the marginalized The immigrant communities That many middle-class white people Just never see And for that reason I am glad That I am a bus rider