`

The Train Station Challenge

 ....must be a few poems here that can be penned


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bootsnall/11-of-the-worlds-coolest-_b_1289459.html



`

                                                               Steel Dinosaur

                                  Feeding on sparks and fire,
                                                     stirring imagination and youth,
                                  hobo's finished with putting up with societies truth.

                                  A friend, those metal rails; an escape to another world,
                                                      from steam to magnetic  opposition,
                                                                  riding down histories trail.

                                 "All aboard," all those in this world,
                                                      round and blue floating,
                                                                    a ride into tomorrow.

All Aboard

folks shuffle
jostle for space
cramped inside
a steel caterpillar
crawling along
carrying oceans
of people
to destinations
stops unknown
but  to themselves

one stop railway towns
the busy city
bustling stations with
cathedral ceilings
architectural shells
designed to accept, welcome
but not to home them
for they are a people barely talking to
one another   
only sneaking furtive glances

a time for thinking
watching the outside fall by
clacking along a ladder
leading to a place different
than the one started from

here for the journey
or  for the destination
does not matter

each an integral part

of

the ride

the station I think of
is a small one
just 6 miles up the road
no huge pillared halls
or soaring roofs, marble
just red bricks, some stone

the services that run
are just sort distance trips
the passengers
a strange mixture
half local
half global

this station of course
is special
for a simple reason
it's number one
in the world

literally

the very first station ever built
anywhere on this planet
on the very first ever
passenger line

one end of that line
is in Georgian England
at the other end
the modern world

you don't get
more special
than that

from over 40 years ago...

The railroad stop's a narrow place:
two views, two windows in between.
Some watch to see the sun come up.
Some others watch to see the train.

The choice is not as simple as it seems.
Both occupations run their risks.
The train is stayed by snow, or strike,
the sun involved in clouds, or mist.

The watchers who come earliest
debate the pro and con, to pass the time.
But neither side will win the point.
The sun won't toot. The train won't shine.

Their conversation wanders far afield.
Each faction swears
the other dances with the Deuce!
One shouts. The other plugs its ears.

A newcomer might never learn
just what the quarrel sprouted from.
Nonetheless, he has no choice but choose:
west is the train, east is the sun.

Tom,

You've been at this poetry lark for a while  then!  When did you start?

Roger

1968 but took a long break for a drink.

Ha! You must be getting quite good at it by now...

:)

Roger

I was pretty good at the drink, I'll say that much.