riding on a train

thudding and pumping and screaming and smoking
under my feet rumbling,
i could hear it coming.
a speeding wreck,
somehow right on track
to my doorstep.
a few sparks and then
boarding time.
had i waited all those years?

i'm a passenger, i'm asleep
it's thudding along,
it's time to eat
and i just have tea
because the seat beside me is empty.
the beat of steel on steel tracks
will be my company
for another year
but when the phone rings
it's a stranger from the coast
and we don't speak.

tunnels gape open into mountains,
and eat us up
because you're here now
your face aglow in the machines
your shoes untied and hurried.
we slumber in sleep cars
sometimes together,
when you're not counting
the passing lampposts
when your mind quieter than the night.