waiting for your train

by kairo

Posted to Action Poetry on 2001-09-01 13:58:00

this damn vision of time in red and blue
blazes in front of me like a midnight graffitied train
on which you are sitting
sipping bourbon, wine, fizzy water
forgeting which stop is next,
which cabin in which you should sleep your night away.
the darkness is whole,
full,
perfect
until the howl and hoot of that train
ghosts into the black
bluring lines, boundaries, divisions
of night with headlight so strong
visions of words, letters, trademarks
windows filled with your non-existent face
blanketed by velvet curtains tied back in gold
and black tassels which you toss in ho-hum.
i lift my body off the wet ground eight feet back from the tracks,
i’d been expecting you,
wave into your window of blackberry nothing
see a light of the red blinking warning on the other side of the tracks
through both windows side to side
you’re not there,
but you have to be there,
waving at the fly buzzing in your face
unaware i am tiny forgotten among prairie grass
on your distant trip to nowhereaccessiblebyme.
as the train taunts goodbye
the caboose smiles at me,
my hair settles into wild formations
as the wind is silent and still once more,
my eyes grow wide and fill with tears
as i brush the night dew from my legs,
walk to the tracks
lay my fingertips upon the steel rails
for moments too painful to be long
and feel how hot the steel has become
from your midnight car wheeling away from me.