69 Trains

(i) Solitude

Between the two rails

A train rattles and rumbles its way along

A series of clanging fills the air

There, you can see it yourself

A train; the train; this train; that train--

all bound by the rails that cling on tightly

as we are bound to the train of mortality,

made to travel alone helplessly

floundering in our sorrows.

(ii) Connectedness

A single solitary track glaring its way across the countryside

Joined by another solitary track inching its way in from the city

Two trains heave and rattle past each other,

almost as long as the electric cables on towers.

The people inside sit alone on hard plastic seats,

look up at the roaring sound from the train opposite

theirs and stare straight into the eyes of the lonely

Before the trains rattle away and never cross paths again.

(iii) Company

The train reaches the end of the line

And gets ready to switch around--

no passengers--except a young man

running helter-skelter towards the train,

slips inside just in time. The train whistles, starts off again

in the opposite direction. A station comes into view, a hot chick gets on,

sits beside him and places a hand on his cheek;

they move closer, foreheads touching,

then a bolt of lightning

flashes through the air and thunder makes its clamour known,

then another station comes into view and

the chick gets off. They didn't even kiss. A woman with wrinkled skin,

tired eyes, has sat at the end of the train this whole time. She seems

to grow older as the train moves

or maybe that's just accursed imagination that rots

sanity away. The man notices all this as the train rumbles

away from the station on to another station, where the woman alights,

and then there is no one left on the train but the man as

he heads off towards the other end of the rails.