Poem from a long train ride
"Lake Shore Limited (New York to Chicago)"
Lake Shore Limited (New York to Chicago)
Rain washes
grime-sheathed
train windows
—I woke up to the silos of Indiana
slipping past
and October
reds and yellows
melding
into metal husks
and chipped brick walls
stained with faded logos.
All the gone-under towns surrounded
by the season’s
spectral fluorescence.
I woke up to weeds in wind-knit quilts
folded over track-side ditches
and a few crows
held close like a fist
lifting off a slanted barn roof.
I feel as though I was on the train with you! I used to commute from Suffolk County to Manhattan on the Long Island Railroad each M-F and I remember thinking about all the people in the rundown homes by the tracks...studying their laundry lines, the dilapidated pool in the backyard, the faded pink bike unused for years. Everything told a story.
wow the imagery! the "reds and yellows melding into metal husks" -