Platform Lady

A lonely train ride through a lonely land

Steel rail, straight through
Badlands, brown fields--
Run down ghost town,
Sandman and shadow skip this place.

No-light waymeet:
Cross-roads, locked doors.
Gray-sky-cold wind
Blowing leaves forgotten by the rake.

Road house distant.
Fenced-off silence,
Steel wind, lone soul:
She shivers while she’s tugging at her coat.

Row house, tight packed,
Slumped fence, broke glass,
No hand, no face:
Blinded eyes, no shutter left unhinged.

Cold steel, red rust--
Next stop: ago.
Warped-board foot rails,
Nothing but a broken town for miles.

Black hair, eyes down
Late train, lost love?
Old line, long time
Since anyone came looking for a ride.

Black night, gold globe
Steam's up; pulls off
She stays, sad eyes
Waiting for her wartime ghost, perhaps

Night train, old love
Blank streets, lost maid
One tear--my tear,
Am I her broken savior come at last?

Clocks spun, mouths moved
No one saw her,
Not quite present--
Behind and through, I see the burned-out booths.

Head tilts, eyes raise:
Ma'am don't see me.
Please go, find peace--
Mine is not the soul to haunt for truth.

    And the cold and the clouds press close.
    I pause just once and turn around:
    No trace of the woman.
    There’s nothing left to see,

    Just the clouds, pressing cold and close,
    No snow or sun, just grey and brown
        And the faintest yellow
            Where the gate used to be.