The Night Train

Use this forum to post poetry that you have written. This is for getting comments and constructive feedback. This is for original, creative works. You must post the actual text, no links. Only one poem per topic please.
Post Reply
User avatar
Lincolnshirelass
Previous Member of the Month
Posts: 1509
Joined: 30 Oct 2017, 04:36
Bookshelf Size: 0

The Night Train

Post by Lincolnshirelass »

(by the way, this is a story told as a poem so I hope it's in the right forum ...)

The room, she knew, was over-priced,
money she gladly sacrificed,
to find a place to rest her head
instead of trailing round instead,
besides, she'd reached her destination
in the hotel by the station.

She knew it from the first split second,
saw the gabled inn that beckoned,
she had lived by a line before,
twenty years ago or more,
and though she knew time won't turn back,
the rhythmic rattling of the track

Spoke to her of bygone days.
so as the Autumn sunset rays
began to fade into the gloom
she made her way up to her room.
and looked across where brambles, gorse,
and weeds marked out the railway's course.

But there was beauty in the view,
trees with Autumn's remnants still,
so near the town, yet almost wild,
nature defiant, undefiled.
A distant factory chimney's steam
captured in the twilight gleam.

Here I will sleep well, she thought,
more than coincidence has brought
me to look out and look back
and look across the railway track
as trains to chugged to their destination
or through the little, rundown station.

And in the night she roused again,
heard the rattle of a train,
Not stopping, only passing through,
she did not know where from or to,
turned over, sleep was calm, benign,
there beside the railway line.

She casually mentioned it next day,
Only for someone to say,
there were no night trains anymore,
she had imagined it for sure,
the manager jumped into say,
perhaps they sometimes pass this way...

Perhaps something has been re-routed,
a service been re-institued.
But his face was troubled, grim,
for something had occurred to him,
a story he had once been told,
by the porter, grizzled old.

'You hear the night train,' he had said,
'and in two weeks you will be dead'.
He'd said, 'Absurd thing to suggest!
And don't dare tell it to a guest!'
The old porter had kept his word,
the manager thought it absurd ...

and yet, he had to own, at night,
looking at the half-seen sight
where railway track and wildness meet,
such thoughts aren't easy to defeat,
For there are things you can't explain ...
He hoped he'd never hear the train.

The days passed by, a fortnight, nearly,
and he didn't believe, not really.
But then a newsflash filled his screen -
a terrible, familiar scene,
terrorists' bombs raining down,
striking at the guest's home-town.

But then - there she was on TV,
rescued and uninjured - he,
despite his horror at the deed
felt relieved, and oddly freed,
the night train had not done its worst
and his hotel was not cursed!

The late night news brought some relief
contrary to initial belief
there were no fatalities,
but - he felt his blood stall, freeze ....
a tragic twist of fate had led
leaving a survivor dead

In a car-crash. He shook, because
he knew just who that driver was ......
An Eye for an Eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi
User avatar
Dolor
Posts: 2333
Joined: 07 Nov 2017, 14:41
Favorite Author: Craig R. Key
Currently Reading:
Bookshelf Size: 12473
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-dolor.html
Latest Review: The Center of Gravity by Patricia Brandon
Reading Device: 1400697484
fav_author_id: 115430

Post by Dolor »

Oh so sad story poem. 😣
User avatar
vixicountiss
Posts: 12
Joined: 20 Jan 2018, 12:06
Bookshelf Size: 14

Post by vixicountiss »

Oh so beautifully written! I loved this!
Post Reply

Return to “Creative Original Works: Poetry”