The Man On The Train Poem by Jeremy Nel

I watch him as he steps on board
What it is about him that attracts my attention
I do not know
He stares into the empty space
Seeing things that we do not
His body gently sways with the rocking of the train
But he seems oblivious to it all with his peaceful mean

The crowds swarm aboard and off again
Yet he stands there like a rock in the rapids of a river
With all rushing past him on the side
He seems to move in a different dimension and time
What is it that my senses note about him?
Is it the peaceful mean? His calm?
Or is it the inner peace that he emits?

The train rocks along its tracks with a rhythmic clickety clack
He stands there swaying like a Cedar in the wind
Peaceful, elegant and tall
Yet he is not tall, but the impression he creates
Belies his real size.
His gaze still stares out through the door
To faraway spaces and a dimension not here on earth

He seems so content with his life
And with his lot
Yet the ravages of live clearly show
In the lines which canyon across his face
Deep and clear
Still he has come to terms and made his peace
With whatever it is that life had put across his way

He has found the secret to acceptance
Which has given him the peace
And the strength to face and conquer life
With the purpose and the determination
To find happiness in what he does
To find the enjoyment in whatever he creates
And to live life to the full.

He seems so unaffected by the emptiness
That seems so ingrained in the empty eyes
Of his fellow travellers
Their eyes show the vacant hopelessness
Of those who have not yet discovered
The secret to enjoyment of life
Who have yet to come to terms with creation.

So many have yet to discover the goal
Of their lives, that which gives them purpose
And enables them to accept
Their position in life, to come to terms
With the standards which should guide their actions
And to find the peace which He has found
And then be able to stand so tall amongst the streams of life.

He is gone! I did not notice him disembark
Suddenly the coach seems so alien and vacant
I feel lost, as if a friend had departed from my life
And now I had been abandoned to my lot
To find my happiness and make my peace
Without the pillar of strength that He seemed to be
As he stood there quietly staring out.

Then he enters, this dismal excuse for a human being
He stands there looking fearfully at everything about him
Eyes darting from person to person as if
To determine who is a soft touch perhaps for a pint
Or who to avoid
His vacant eyes such a contrast to the bright clear eyes
He would never know the peace that he does

How does this planet of ours produce such diversity
Those who can live life and those who cannot cope
Such I suppose is what creates complexities
But how I wish that life could be more fair
And enable the vacant eyes to see
That which they cannot comprehend
How to reach the inner peace of acceptance and understanding.