You What? Poem by Terry Donovan

The train stopped in the tunnel,
All the lights went out.
The people sat in silence.
You could hear a brussel sprout.

The fat man in the corner
Broke into a second sweat,
The woman with the Walkman
Lit up a cigarette.

The henpecked looking husband
Turned his mobile on again
And like that bloke on telly yelled
“Hi, dear, I’m on the train”.

And someone, no one knew just who,
Then furtively passed wind.
In the darkness noses wrinkled
While the boy in glasses grinned.

The fellow with the crossword
Clicked his ball point pen non-stop,
The toddler in his mother’s arms
Was getting in a strop.

With the silence getting louder
Fancied fear become a fact,
The onset of line fidgeting
Signed a unifying pact.

No one spoke or broke the silence,
No one knew quite what to do.
You don’t find many heroes
On a rush-hour train to Crewe.

Then suddenly the lights came on,
The engine’s whistle screeched,
The carriage gave a shudder,
Blood returned to faces bleached.

The tunnel walls moved slowly past
As wheels began to turn,
The fat man did his buttons up,
The toddler did a gurn.

Someone wiped a steamed-up window,
Everyone stopped feeling grave,
But only the boy in glasses
Saw the headless horseman wave.