The Crossing Poem by Charles Hancock

The midnight sky spewed heavy rain
As I sat at a crossing waiting on a train
I cracked my window to better hear
The speeding mammoth as it got near

Clank, clank, clank was the sound
Of wheels that were no longer round
The mighty diesel locomotives fumed
And lights flashed and the horn boomed

To what metropolis was the it going to
I wondered aloud as it pushed through
Was the weary crew going all the way
Maybe they were just a leg of a long relay

Did each have a lonesome wife at home
Was their off-duty time spent mostly alone
How long was their work day
Are the sacrifices worth the pay

Three locomotives and ninety cars of coal
Rumbled by and vanished over the knoll
Without trains, where would America be today
I put my car in gear and slowly pulled away