Photo art by Reka Jellema. October 24, 2014. Untitled.
When We Talk About Trains: A Conversation
up and down
the depot, just folks
a girl with a peacock hat
skirts clinging to her thighs
the heat
of the passenger train
in the lonesome
quilted prairie
the train runs a line
of stitches
vietnam
tunnel a hole
in the eyes
of the boxcar men
the lullaby
of the night train
rocking, rocking
the way home
when the train
was a cradle
that rocked me
slow …
and when you
did the same
between stations
longing
for downhome fiddling,
the blur of corn, the open
door of the boxcar
and a mandolin
postcard towns
every train
cut down
to size
one place or another
it’s all the same
on the orphan train
today, the city,
tomorrow, arkansas
all of the straw
plucked
from the scarecrow
Idling at the railway crossing
the train drowns out
the velvet underground
remember
that cautionary tale
the headphones that kept him
from hearing
the train
the day came
nothing was enough
no more gin, not one drop
of comfort: all I knew
I could count
railroad ties
I knew the times
of the trains by heart
head on, headlights,
goodnight
bars of light and noise
apartment
by the el
train
life
train
living
low tide
a flat horizon
glisten
from sand to sea
the train roars through
not stopping
in every other life
she was a ladybug
reductive, red
& spotted
sometimes reincarnation
works that way,
father said, pointing
at the train --
her face
kept chugging
creosote soaks
our noses
skipping
from rail to rail
shiny on top
waiting for the ride
to end
the bleary drone
of horn
one man
one guitar
and a long blue
grass song
about trains
the stop before
the last stop
hop on
watch the rush
of the Dakotas
a harmonica
grows teeth
blows holes
in my soul
a harmonica
chainsaws
and the train
rolls on
bends
around the hills
seeing our own end
and the prisoners
below
the golden grass
just before the tunnel
All her stories connect
like boxcars
mexico
singapore
delta oil
it’s all the same
hollow rain
sound of an empty freight
blowing horn
sudden gray
this always train
Written with Jennifer Savage
Copyright Reka Jellema & Jennifer Savage
October 24, 2014
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