Delay, well, travellers must expect <br />Delay. For how long? No one seems to know. <br />With all the luggage weighed, the tickets checked, <br />It can't be long… We amble too and fro, <br />Sit in steel chairs, buy cigarettes and sweets <br />And tea, unfold the papers. Ought we to smile, <br />Perhaps make friends? No: in the race for seats <br />You're best alone. Friendship is not worth while. <br /> <br />Six hours pass: if I'd gone by boat last night <br />I'd be there now. Well, it's too late for that. <br />The kiosk girl is yawning. I fell stale, <br />Stupified, by inaction - and, as light <br />Begins to ebb outside, by fear, I set <br />So much on this Assumption. Now it's failed.<br /><br />Philip Larkin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/autobiography-at-an-air-station/
