Reading on a Dim Metro Car

The lights were out in cars 3 and 4,
except for fluorescant rectangles above the doors
illuminating the standing few and their reading material.

No one seemed to mind,
but the conductor assured passengers
that he was aware of the problem.

I read about the springtime sunlight
in my dim corner.
Light so permeating, that it urged Billy Collins to smash a glass paperweight
release the photons or something.1

But what did the paperweight ever do?
He probably envies my dark seat
where he would be safe from the ecstatic Collins
and his hammer,
who never smiles.

A magic place
where the quiet train people
hold the paper themselves.

1. Today by Billy Collins