“Taxi Driver"
There is something strangely liberating
about being just a taxi driver…
The secret lies in the “just”!
Because you’re just a taxi driver,
nobody really sees you…
But you see, hear, and feel
the absurdities, the shallowness,
the beauty, the sorrow,
the joy, the heartbreak of every rider!
Most treat you with half or totally fake respect,
because you’re just a taxi driver…
But they leave you alone
They don’t find justifications
or create crises
to take over your seat…
In fact, they want you to be exactly in that seat!
After all, they only ride with you
because - at least for that time –
they don’t wish to occupy your seat…
Yet, like every sense of liberation,
Being a taxi driver, is a liberation
kneaded with a strange sadness and disappointment
when you realize that the motherfuckers
only leave you alone
when you run away from them
and occupy a seat that they don’t desire
during the their ride ….

[Original poem published in Arabic on June 21, 2923 at ahewar.org]”