Waiting for the bus

In front of the Curzon Theatre

on Victoria, waiting for the bus,

which, according to the schedule

posted with precision on the pole,

says it arrives every twelve minutes,

quite a feat in the traffic of central

London, Westminster, in fact,

a few blocks from the Abbey

and Parliament, a Westminster

rarely escaping congestion, but

the schedule plainly claims

every twelve minutes and

we, being good tourists, believe it.

After double the time, an almost

precise Greenwich Mean Time,

the bus slowly chugs to a stop,

its door opening. Only on the Tube

do you hear “mind the gap.”

The bus doesn’t seem to mind at all.

Photograph by Johnny Dod via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.