Saturday, June 19, 2010

951. MEPHISTOPHELES RUNNING

MEPHISTOPHELES
RUNNING
Thin gauge railway running through the meadows,
carrying coal and straw and hay and people. Why?
Only for a gimmick, these days. That fare - used to be 35 cents -
now having risen to $5.55 makes little sense to me : one gets
the very same nothing for the very same ride. 'The old
Iron Bog Railway served an important role in its
day transporting raw goods and people to and from
their places of need.' I was, anyway, never sure
what that meant. Places of need? Places they
had to be? Places where they were needed?
Places that needed them? Places they
needed to be? Why not just say
destinations, and be done?
-
The hot sun above my head had to be
one hundred and ten degrees, and this
damned black train spewing sparks as heat.
I sure didn't need that. Then, only then,
I noticed - this lead car engine had a
name - there, weirdly inscribed on the
nameplate above the outside boiler :
Mephistopheles.

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