Your eyes possessed the sunset of tomorrow <br />And denies the sunrise of today <br />Your callused hands burnt from the struggles <br />Yet flimsy with superfluous abandonments <br />Like empty stations, you futilely wait <br />To be filled, but in your sleep <br />You have forgotten the weight <br />Of your ethereal passengers <br />Encumbering your peaceful calm <br /> <br />I watched you watch the railroad tracks <br />But they never altered, do they? <br />I watched you watch the passing trains <br />And the faces antagonizing the ferry <br />For they are the faces of departing, <br />Faces of the arriving - unstained <br />Of any rue or purpose, aren't they? <br /> <br />A bloated gloaming came <br />And I espied you once again <br />Musing on the shaking ground <br />And the minutiae pyrotechnics <br />Bubbling in the railroad track <br />A resolute ruse upon your fisted hands <br />And a-letting go upon the other <br /> <br />The babel of voices came with a roar <br />And the alloy beast was before you <br />In this bending slope of the track <br />It decelerated speed while you <br />Grew stronger to face defeat <br /> <br />Before the last trail fade <br />You finally moved and morose <br />Was basking in the shadows you left <br />As you free-ride and surf the train <br />And there as a glow upon you: <br />A flicker of life pawned for a requiem <br /> <br />Is this what makes you safe? <br />Disentangling tethers that promised forever <br />Perhaps you knew that forever is a lie <br />Is this what makes you brave? <br />Departing the amiable promises <br />And saving cities from tragedies <br />Is this your fate? <br />Or your maneuver against it? <br /> <br />Before the mousetrap closes <br />I flung myself into the train <br />Now I come for oblivion <br />With ten thousand reasons <br />And ten million footsteps <br />I will never build a home.<br /><br />Norman Santos<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-railroad-man/
