Alone on the railroad track <br /> I walked with pounding heart. <br />The ties were too close together <br /> or maybe too far apart. <br /> <br />The scenery was impoverished: <br /> scrub-pine and oak; beyond <br />its mingled gray-green foliage <br /> I saw the little pond <br /> <br />where the dirty old hermit lives, <br /> lie like an old tear <br />holding onto its injuries <br /> lucidly year after year. <br /> <br />The hermit shot off his shot-gun <br /> and the tree by his cabin shook. <br />Over the pond went a ripple <br /> The pet hen went chook-chook. <br /> <br />"Love should be put into action!" <br /> screamed the old hermit. <br />Across the pond an echo <br /> tried and tried to confirm it.<br /><br />Elizabeth Bishop<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chemin-de-fer/
