Some days the city's nervous system seems to pulse in your veins. There's a certain kind of negligent energy coming off everybody. I nearly bumped into a half dozen people who were looking down at their phones and for whom I was only a nuisance shadow in their peripheral vision. There were some petals that stood out against Ezra Pound's wet black bough but they quickly faded into the background. In my rush to catch the 6:45 I passed a woman carrying what looked like a heavy shopping bag. Suddenly the bottom of it broke and a bunch of cans she must have been collecting to redeem were on the sidewalk and she made a small noise of despair. I noticed she had a small child with her in a stroller. I thought to help her but how? Then I walked on hurriedly to make the 6:45, her plight forever unresolved.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-a-station-of-the-metro