Strange How Trains
       

Once upon a time we were lovers, eager and untimed.
I heard the long, phantom whistle of a train today:
Strange, mysterious, lost, deep, murmuring, kin of my kind.

Astronomers discovered a galaxy in the night sky
At the center of a rich cluster of galaxies known as Abell
2029. Once upon a time we were lovers, eager and untimed.

I saw you in the window of the train; months later, you arrived
At the station (traveling inexhaustibly away?).
Strange, mysterious, lost, deep, murmuring, kin of my kind.

Strange how trains travel where no tracks lie,
Across the night sky and into the dream day.
Once upon a time we were lovers, eager and untimed.

Light years ticked by.
The painted train will never leave the painted station.
Strange, mysterious, lost, deep, murmuring, kin of my kind.

I saw a train of nebulae cross the night sky
Like the long, phantom whistle of a train.
Once upon a time we were lovers, eager and untimed.
Strange, mysterious, lost, deep, murmuring, kin of my kind.

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Copyright © 2022 Stephen Ackerman All rights reserved
from Late Life
Silverfish Review Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission