Mickey Mahan

Centro bus driver Mickey Mahan recites his poems while he drives the Route 344 bus from Syracuse University’s South Campus to the main campus every morning. He adopted his nickname, “The Flying Busman,” from “The Flying Dutchman,” a folklore about a ghost ship that sailed the ocean forever.

Mahan describes his job as a perfect fit for him because it provides him with inspiration and the space to practice his poetry. The city view gives him ideas about poetry, and he writes poems when his bus stops.