About Trains Poem by BASAB CHAUDHURI

After a long time -
Indeed a long long time -
I will travel by a train tomorrow.
Not too long, about three hours
That's still a long time -
I've got my ticket, a window seat,
At present I imagine how the seat will be,
How fast the train will go past the fields and the houses,
I imagine.
Stations - so many of them scattered all over,
As I am stationary, all the trains are moving away,
And the people, some alighting, some boarding,
Trains are leaving the stations and going away.
At such times, every bit of my existence feels left behind,
Trains and the stars all going away from me,
Really or not really, I don't know,
This much I know, all of them are moving away,
Leaving me alone.
This feeling - that I am left behind,
As they move away from me,
This world, every bit of it so dear,
Moving away, away, away -
I feel pain in my chest and shout -
That's when all the trains and the stations, and the people, and the stars,
Condense into a poem.
A poem.