that girl was feckless

the girl who sat by me on the train
was feckless, slight of build, and
about something-three. Twenty-three,
or thirty-three.

I don't know how I could tell
she was feckless. She said
nothing, the whole trip absorbed

listening to music, presumably her
music (though it could have been radio?),
through two snaking white wires that ended

in buzzing white berries, stuck snug
in her feckless ears. There can be
no doubt as to her fecklessness,

though. I am and have always been
a shrewd observer, and I can tell
these things and others - even though

I may not be able to tell how. Very
slight signs key the revelation - none
of them on their own will flash:

"feckless"

- but together, they build it up
conclusively, for me to see. She
was feckless. Her hair, frayed

a bit by dye jobs, the last one
a shockingly mousy tone, her skirt
was a dim purple, as if it too had

been dyed, but with a slightly off
color from the faded original, and
the two purples did not get along.

I assumed it had been bought used,
a thrift shop find. It was a quality
garment, but she seemed too feckless

to be re-dying faded clothes; therefore
someone else had done it. Its purple-
gray was not unpleasant, and it went

well, with everything else she had on
- though it matched with nothing.
I'll spare you the dissection

of the rest of her outfit. Leave it
to say that an impression of feck
-lessness was built up. Her face,

even, intent on the face of the boxy
device her white wires fed into, even
though there was no video screen or

any sort of interest. She didn't look
up from it once. Never turned her head
in my direction as I sat facing forward

like a blind man, in shades. She was
about three rows up in distance, although
there were no rows between us. I sat

in the front of a front-facing section,
and she sat in the middle of one of the
side-facing seat sections, that ran

along the wall. She didn't look up once
from that box, even when I came in (that
was when I saw the front of it, no display

screen) and sat down. She seemed feckless,
even then. The impression was instant
-aneous. Perhaps it was her face, which

had freckles in abundance. "Freckles" is
a bit suggestive of "feckless." Yes, I
think that's it! Ah, the fecklessness of

youth.