I rode the train with my girl today
across the barn swept hollows
Past lush fields of emerald green
with the life and love that follows

The train car tapped out a lullaby beat
which spent our time lost in leisure
The smiles past came by with the peace
life's sweet gifts we couldn't measure

A man had set across the aisle of us
he seemed so different from me
Clothes tattered, torn and weathered
homeless and likely worn hard was he

I couldn't help but to take the notice
his features hewn and deeply lined
Drawing a map of where he'd been
red eyed he looked half blind

Something alone in his vacant stare
said It was me that he resembled
The thought had taken me a-fright
I looked hard, long and trembled

I saw my lover look over him too
noticed the hair might be the same
Except for straggling beard and decay
I had felt a deep sense of shame

Could that be what would happen to me
what fallen angel had led him astray
A nightmare vision of life’s full truth
eyes of pain in the heart they betray

Then my lover looked back upon me
her thoughts she sought hard to repress
How kind the teared eyes that hid the truth
from her lips that would never confess


Tate
Original version
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/aristate/441725/