Train Journey Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Grey clouds crawl slowly over racing trees
Back yards blur shrieking over streaks of miles
Train slits the evening like a knife through silk.
A swaggering brace of schoolboys toe-dip puberty

Back yards blur shrieking over streaks of miles
A fleshy palm taps out a laptop tune
A swaggering brace of schoolboys toe-dip puberty
Teasing horizons never keep their meeting

A fleshy palm taps out a laptop tune
Four housewives slip their leash, away - day gigglers
Teasing horizons never keep their meeting
A black bag flutters like a mourning band

Four housewives slip their leash, away - day gigglers
Grey clouds crawl slowly over racing trees
A black bag flutters like a mourning band
Train slits the evening like a knife through silk.

Seen from the train,
A flying cow,
A stone white horse,
Tall fields of wheat.

Seen from the train,
A rain lashed bough,
Low lines of trees,
Where two farms meet.

Drizzle and blizzard and hail and sleet,
Splittering splattering on the pane,
Whoosh of steel and the flash of wheel,
Thundering forward roars the train.