Friday, April 4, 2014

5226. JUST LIKE IN THE RAILROAD DARKNESS

JUST LIKE IN THE 
RAILROAD DARKNESS
(for me)
Just like in the railroad darkness of a hundred cold mornings, 
am still reading the chill in the air, what it presents to me 
and where. Stuck on squander-point earth, I guess, again. 
That siding over there, the one with nothing on it, sits vacant and 
stares : last Summer's weed's still dangle, now brown and 
broken stiff where nothing grows. They've not even attacked 
a light to  the lamppost nearby  -  where once the railroad 
clerk marked boxcars, where once the engineers counted 
barrels and crates and weights for loading. The chemical 
company is still there; now but a sorry ghost of its old 
once-self, but  still working nonetheless. I see those guys on 
the siding  -  waiting for their jobs to begin. I imagine they 
buy sneakers, clothes and food with their money  -  
to support their families, kids and all. Such the great value 
of still being employed. This vicious half-light now rising; 
it brings forth another day  -  the kind with glee and 
penny-whistles, happiness and wonder. 
Children in school, lunches in bags,
whittlers whittling down at the old town square.
So many wonderful lives, all wrapped up in one.
Stuck on squander-point earth, I guess, again.

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