A collection of the ways people
ride transit, the way they
occupy moving interiors, will be
constructed through producing
“Metric Writing.”
Ride the transit route you take
everyday for a period of your
choice. Write a single sentence
which exhausts a single person
on the bus/streetcar/subway. You
must choose a different person
each time you transfer. Collect
all sentences chronologically.
This body of work will catalogue
deportment, letting the dross of
descriptive detail fall away while
modeling configurations.
Tuesday
Someone seated looks out the
window while leaning, shoulder
against the glass, with every jolt
looking up towards the front or
down towards the grey strip of
transfer paper in hand or at the
black and red bag on the ground,
shifting it slightly to jam its bulk
under the seat.
Looking towards a phone while
also seeing to a small coffee takes
up this person’s time, balancing
the white paper cup against the
continual start-stop jolting while
keeping the phone steady at just
below eye level in line of site, the
same level as the aforementioned
coffee, smiling at the screen content
with knees slightly spread to
provide a platform for a black-and-
grey bag, braced against the metal
back of a built-in seat on which one
forearm rests.
AM
Tuesday
Knees, then olive canvass bag, then
book is the sequence stack that
this reader produces, engrossed in
a large book which contains small
print, attention drawn away at the
call of streetcar stops towards the
LED screen at the front.
PM
Wednesday
Due to the presence of both a top-
loading bag and large, square-end
duffle bag, this person occupies two
seats in total, resting the backpack
against the back of the seat next
over to the right and the duffle
bag on the seat to the left above
the damp floor; meanwhile, white
earbud headphones play sound,
jammed under a tight toque.
Leaning against the window
to the left reading a hardcover
book which still is protected by a
colourful, yellowed, dust jacket;
this person rests the book against
a scrunched-up amorphous bag
which rests on knees held close
together, right foot placed before
the left and slid slightly under the
preceding unoccupied seat; the
person is engrossed in the book but
looks up at every stop towards the
back doors.
AM
Wednesday
The interruptions of travel would
not dislodge this person from
this single stance: eyes forward
looking through the window’s top
pane; left hand in the pocket of a
puffer jacket, the other hanging at
ease; body near the pole but never
touching it; weight shifting from
leg to leg, compensating for the
start-again-stop-again; overloaded
bag hanging from the right
shoulder.
PM
Thursday
The bag balanced on this person’s
knee is perpendicular to the
plastic guard which infills between
sections of tubing, kept stationary
through compression between the
knee and guard, head stationary
looking down slightly to rest on
a large scarf, body stationary,
hand stationary grasping the right
backpack strap, earbud headphones
hidden behind the fur-trimmed
edge of a large hood.
Crossed legs facilitate eating
as this person rests the right
forearm, right hand and a screw-
top Tupperware on a shoulder
bag which is rested upon the
topmost leg of this crossed-leg
stance, remaining in place after
the Tupperware is emptied and
an apple takes its place, after a
quick rummage in the bag, to be
bitten into at close intervas with
head turned slightly toward the
interior while leaning left against
the exterior wall; the left hand,
meanwhile, is occupied with a
travel mug which is held low,
resting against the crossed leg as a
phone occupies the space between
the apple-holding hand and travel
mug.
AM
Thursday
This person leans towards
the window while listening
to something through earbud
headphones; the left leg is v’ed out
to touch the wall while the right
is kept in line with the rightmost
edge of the seat.
PM
Friday
Sitting down does not prevent this
person from still wearing a flat,
file-folder-style bag while browsing
content on a phone, body centred
in the seat and looking up to check
the stops as they appear on the
LED screen.
Sitting, elbows on splayed
knees, overfilled bag placed in
the adjacent seat, head turned
left to monitor the LED sign as
stops appear; this person moves
restlessly.
AM
Friday
Squashed between the window and
another, leaning to the right and
talking then listening then talking
again to another who sits sideways
on the seat, turning around to face
the pair.
PM
Saturday
One foot held up on the wheel
bulkhead, the other hanging down
off the seat’s edge, foot nearly
touching the ground, leaning left;
this person gestures to another
seated adjacent who leans in to
listen.
Two sit shoulder-to-shoulder
parallel: legs kept parallel, feet
kept parallel, bodies kept stiffly
parallel, heads facing forward;
however, the left person rests a
large gift bag upon the parallel
knees, arms crossed behind.
AM
Saturday
Asleep, this person’s head rests
against the window, body slumped
over with knees touching the
plastic barrier which caps off a
small bulkhead; a bag rests atop
both knees and leans against this
barrier.
PM
Sunday
A newspaper is rested on the seat
nearest to the window and is being
flipped through by this person
whose body is rotated slightly and
whose head is turned slightly down
to facilitate reading; the left hand
moves from under chin to grasping
the page’s corner between index
finger and thumb, turning it.
This person’s bag occupies the
seat nearest to the window while
they are seated next to it with left
leg crossed over right and hands
resting on both thighs; this person
looks straight ahead.
AM
Sunday
This seated person is on the phone
looking down at the screen while
quietly, closely talking into the
microphone assembly of earbud
headphones one of which is placed
in the left ear; the person hunches
over the phone and smiles.
PM
Monday
This person browses on a phone
held at chest height, seated with a
bag occupying the space between
splayed legs, wireless headphones
visible in ears below the edge of a
toque.
Sitting, with a purse on this
person’s lap they stare ahead out
the front window, once raising the
right heel to flex the right toes,
raising the knee in the process and
moving the bag strap which hangs
down the right calf.
AM
Monday
A plastic tote bag hangs from this
person’s right index finger and
occupies the space between splayed
legs while the left hand holds a
large hard-cover book; both rest
on each knee as this person leans
forward, engrossed in reading,
pushed forward by the bag, still
worn despite being seated.
PM
Tuesday
This person sits and stares ahead
out the window while clutching a
thin file folder with both hands; it
hangs down between this person’s
calves while both hands are held
between both thighs.
This person sits, looking ahead,
head turned slightly to the left
toward the window, both hands
atop a leather bag atop both thighs,
feet kept close together below
while earbuds occupy both ears; the
cord runs down towards the right
jacket pocket, negotiating a large
scarf on the way.
AM
Tuesday
This person stands, body pressed
up against the pole with a gloved
hand, the right, clutching it while
the left holds a phone from which a
pair of earbud headphones connect
up to both ears as the person
shuffles to the right at each stop to
finally take a seat, hunching over
the phone and shifting a bag onto
the now flat surface of both thighs.
PM
