An Existential Crisis

A man steps onto the bus

Then shuffles to a seat

He settles into his spot

And takes out his phone

He’s an average looking man

Somewhere in his sixties

Unusually average-looking, in fact,

That you swear you’ve seen him before

It’s exciting to think that this man

Is as complex of a human being

And full of personality and character

As everyone else on this bus

How strange to think

That for the 200 000 years our species has existed

This stranger and I exist together.

Of the nearly 8 billion homo sapiens who make their mark on this planet

We both enter this particular bus

And the billions of years that our universe

Has slipped through agonizing eons

Leads to this very moment in its progression

I sit in awe of the sheer time that has passed before this could happen

Only to realize I’ve missed my stop

So I get off the bus

And so does he.