Mind The Gap
(To the personnal Dept, London Underground)

I'll be minding the gap at Waterloo station
if the offer's still open to me.
Can you catch the announcement
the next time you're there
and ask if they need a C.V.?

I don't mind applying to someone in writing,
the job has been vacant so long,
and I'm ideally suited to something like that
since I'm fit and observant and strong.

I could work for a month on a kind of probation.
It's something I've wanted to try.
I bet I could mind it for hours and hours
as commuters and tourists pass by.

I'd stand on the platform and stare at the gap
between platform and underground train.
I guess it's long hours for miserable pay
but it's something to challenge my brain.

As I'm minding the gap I'd be minding my manners
and minding my uniform's clean
and not minding buskers who play out of tune
or graffiti that's sometimes obscene.

I know it's a job that they're anxious to fill
so it must be a reasonable cause
but if the position's not open to me
I guess I could just "Mind The Doors!"

- by Prajna Pranab, 1994