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Dario Tinajero Dec 2024
Unbound chaos crafted by illegal hands
beautiful tragedies in the eyes of 2 sides
A vandal’s artwork so articulate it’s a crime
We’ll never know their name or the history of how they came to be
But only imagine in the graffiti we see
Dashing expression, in spontaneous speed
Lovely locomotive tapestry
“I love watching graffiti on a train as it goes by..”
- Lucy
Tom Lefort Dec 2024
Huddled, strained, with craned necks to the board,
They wish for that missing number,
The hope they wait upon—
The launchpad to their homes.

Puzzled, drained, enraged—the muttered sounds.
They miss that sudden cue,
The rush to be the one;
That fearful scrum of drones.

Tom Lefort
Zywa Dec 2024
In the compartment

window, we kiss and we merge --


with the May blossoms.
Poem "Spiegelingen" ("Reflections", 1999, Hans Tentije)

Collection "Loves Tricks Gains Pains in the 80s and 90s"
DJQuill Nov 2024
Sitting by the rails
Wondering when my train will come
Cold breeze wandering like a rider in the wind
Feeling the metal bench
rusting with time
Seeing people passing by, covered by a warmth
And me,
Still sitting,
Wondering when my train will arrive
hope may arrive
Nathan Leslie Nov 2024
In an echo chamber
                                                                ­       horns blare

As her words    
                       dissipate
shared
                         soothing
  unfettered
                             laughter
   reverberates                    
                                ­   through every fiber
    finding                                                ­
                                           the darkest recesses
     burrowing                                                        ­              
                                                      its soothing claws deep
      keeping me                                                               ­                   
                                                                ­      rooted to the tracks
      I stain
                                                           ­           the cowcatcher
      I grind                                                            ­                              
                                  ­                                    through the gears
      I mince                                                            ­                            
                                                                ­      under the wheels
     I capitulate                                                       
        ­                                              over passed rails
    gutted

   fluid

  flows

freely

as her words


skinned and butchered
brand pastoral memories
and feed the mouths of mongers
boring into their last meal

Roaming night drives
beneath patchworked moonlight                                                        ­
over rural roads now

solo

all arrive at the same dirt
as calm conversation displaced
by glazed rumination

ends bumpy regardless
Their music
The Ambiance of a Restless Night
softening the shock
silvervi Sep 2024
So tired
The baby next to me
Is loud
I'm worried
The thoughts
Run a marathon
And it goes
On
And
On
And
On
And
On
My heartbeat racing
My mind is tracing
Every fear,
That could come near,
It's more than insecurities,
It's rather severe.

I'm anxious on the train.
Capturing this moment.
Nat Lipstadt Aug 2024
~dedicated and gifted to Alyssa Homes Underwood,
in perpetuity
~
<>
this one, like so many others, is
for my inestimable~faithful friend
who asks, listens and never sings
out of tune,
always lending me his ears…

<>
the 7:42 am train is pulling in…
the tracks run by the soundless waters,
directly through the spaces
called my mind

<>


sun begging come out & play,
“c’mon baby, you know need warmth,”

(even if mine ain’t the kind that realizes
real dreams, the kind that exhale healing,
but come out anyway, take what you can get,
put off the pains of haunting curses, sins that cannot be erased, random emerging like jacks-in-the-box that were cranked, but just waiting for the right moment to fk you up…try putting them bastids, back in the can with  aplomb & composure but you know it’s way too late..)

Van Morrison serenades
“These are the days
(of the endless summer),”
it is a hymnal
in / of the church of blue sky,
birch  white pews, voices choral…
the caucus of birds who are crazy flitting, cawing, cracking,
making an unholiness mess unsuitable to the moment’s serenity,

the rabbits, seeing if this idiot threw out some
baby carrots (he did), Van singing of love of the one magician, who would turn my blood into wine…

the whistle blows, a one-minute-warning, train
a-leaving,  so is this poem, and the randomness herein is not a poem, but a cry of the mind,

”un cri de l’esprit,”
may it, it may resonant or fall, face~flat to the ground, the sound of the mind,
the train whistle, the symphony of mother morning nature, the quiet lapping waves,
all acknowledge their “failure to soothe,” them, relentless, will return later, on the morrow, same station, them, who
will never concede that they can be beaten,
to superimpose, a mental purity in the recesses
of where the screams crawl out of the mind’s
cemetery, them unmarked graves, of babies that
did not survive to be named, and yes, that’s a
real thing…shhhhhh, them say the triumvirate of the natural forces state with equanimity
”write, let it out, let it go,”
you
hope no one reads this…but it’s far too late
it is
for~formed, created,
on this the seventh day of the week,
when the Maker rested from his
creation~work, and you think maybe a day of rest, not a bad idea, smiling cause, someone is playing Joe Cocker singing,
“Have a Little Faith in Me”
and then,
“(Try) With a Little Help From My Friends”
confirming, in the governing firmament of this world there are no coincidences…*

<>

8:10 by the sky, and
checking out the sky holes and the holy,
seeing the sight lines to souls gone but always,
well remembered…they too shushing me with
loving kindness…and the next stop is
Nazareth
Paul Butters Apr 2024
Wispy wheat fields wave in the wind
As the train chugs through
Along the track of Life that circles
To bring you back where you began.

They say The Journey is the thing:
Meandering through river cut valleys
Between towering mountains.
Rivers running down to endless ocean
That drowns our globe
We call the Earth.

Kids wave from the windows of that train
A custom of love for fellow humankind.
All aboard are full of hopes and dreams
And fears
Anticipating all manner of things
At their destination for the day.

Many have gone to the seaside this way,
While others have travelled for work
Or even a new life.
Our ancients may have been nomads
And modern folk too must sometimes journey.
There’s no place like home,
But first you have to get there.
Go safely everyone.

Paul Butters

© PB 19\4\2024.
Circular Line
else Mar 2024
saturday noon, we sit on solitary metal plates,
i see tomorrow’s windows through your wise old eyes
overlooking grey skies, the monotonicity of life,
“everyone wakes up, works, and sleeps at the same time..."

your voice trails off as the train taking our rest arrives.
no matter how many times
i've crossed these tracks
nor how old i might now be
i will still feel
that childlike excitement
building within
as i look cautiously
left then right and
left then right again
just to be sure
before stepping across
that first metallic line
a symbol of both
danger and adventure
rechecking the signals
as i cross the second
i have never understood
what those lights tell
of the next train's progress
red yellow green
single or double
flashing or constant
no matter how clear
the tracks appear
the uncertainty of
what might soon be
unstoppably approaching
always sets me on edge
momentarily apprehensive
yet exhilarated by
each rushed step
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