“Seattle Transit Train Commuters” by Allen Forrest
empty expressions
train depot relationships
social pantomime
(originally posted October 2013)
Trains
All posts tagged Trains
“Speeding Train” by Ivo Pannaggi
a train runs through my brain
it rattles the glass of my spine
driving payloads of pain across
tracks of dark neurons that spark
in black cracks of dead bones
it keeps picking up speed racing
farther away from the moment
they split me apart just to lift out
my heart leaving microbes
to seed their invasion and set
down to feed on my parts that
once dreamed of a gentle old age
(originally posted December 2013)
“Indifference” by Jorge Cardenas
commuter runs sing out
their steely speed
clipping through
countryside stretches
that echo their stark
syncopated shrill hum
but these passenger trains
decelerate sharply
all the way down to
a bump and jar pace
when encroaching
old cities and towns
where they often
crawl carefully
mindful of vandals
and vandalized track
en route straight up
the backside of life
unkempt boarded-up precincts
sad shantytowns
nobody sleeps in by choice
hard places
where scavengers
pick apart carcasses
iron or bone
either way
stolen cars
broken dreams
they both have their markets
where pieces of what
were once noble and whole
are reduced to
illicit commodities
wheel rims and hearts
minds and stereo parts
engines and genitals
yanked from their hosts
lost forever
sold or indecently used
by pushers of
powders and pills
by predators
trading in souls
shredding dignity
like so much
valueless
vinyl upholstery
and the passengers
never quite seem
to take notice
eyes occupied
somewhere with
columns of newsprint
with briefcases
notebooks or
lidded in naps
yet once through and out
each bleak zone of despair
as the train regains speed
bump and jar
smoothed away
more than half
the well-barbered and
trendy coiffed heads
turn to look
out the windows
and watch the benign
untroubling scenery
leading them blithely
on to their own daily dreams
Orient Express Travel Poster
Image from ebay.com
(Regarding Agatha Christie)
wagon-lit luxury
intrigue aboard
posh with privilege
conferred by the
grande dame of mystery
intricate plotlines
set stories cerebral
to pace pensive rocking
of finely hand-built
lacquered carriages
transcontinental
foreshadowings
first cast enticing with
complex of question
and quandary while
billowing steam attends
clickety-clack through
dim outskirts of Paris
discovering clues of
fruition by Strasbourg
and Budapest courting
false leads across
grim mountain passes
once held by the
bloodlust of cruel
Transylvanian princes
eventually finding
surprise of solution
while nearing the ancient
Byzantium terminus
Istanbul fresh with
exotic malevolence
ready to board a new
tale for the whodunit
mind of one Benelux
sleuth on his westering
trip of triumphant return
Princeton, NJ Train Station
Photo from flickr.com
monster of Mondays
reeking of Amtrak airbrakes
rapid eye movement
(That’s my old train stop pictured above. But it’s been ten years since I retired. Dreams can reach a long way.)
Photo at portolarailroaddays.com
Unpretentious immigrants
Cut their garroting bonds
To hardships of homeland
American barons
Resignedly welcomed
Their millions of muscles
The fuel of their sweat
Eager micks, wops and chinks
Flocked to fallow frontiers
Still seeded with promise
Of liberty’s premise
All men are born equal
Joined up in work gangs
Sinews straining and bent
To hoisting and heaving
Iron flat-bottomed rails
Thirty-nine feet in length
They settled each ton
Upon rough axe-hewn sleepers
The gandy teams straddled
To brace ill-shod feet
At a signal they plunged
Stout angle-spurred rods
Down with powerful stabs
Into ballast-stone beds
Then in well-rehearsed
Straight-armed unison leaned
Hauling back on those rods
With a full-bodied force
Producing sharp tugs
Expelling deep grunts
That relieved their taut backs
Then again and again
Stab, lean, tug and grunt
Stab, lean, tug and grunt
In a rhythmical dance
Beat to primitive chants
Each musical phrase
Gained measureless movement
Imperceptible nudge
By slight fractions until
Each rail neat aligned
With its precursor
Here’s when those gandymen
Altered their song trading
Rods for new partners
Sledgehammers and spikes
Danced a new chant with rings
From their alternate swings
Mighty blows driving spikes
To secure keen laid curves
Or extend dead-straight runs
Of the westering route
Nineteenth-century
Steam locomotives
Would travel asserting
New manifest destiny
Widening realm where
By free choice all men
Might pursue self-made
Paths to prosperity
Those bold gandydancers
Long faded from textbooks
And popular lore
Exhausted their power
Endured every prejudice
Expanding a nation
Gave brawn to its people
Brought pride to their own
So that their sons and mine
Set shoulder to shoulder
With hands full of power
Could dance to new destinies
Poesy plus Polemics 