Sally learned back in the coach seat
as the train pulled from the station
her face lit up as the bell rang good bye
“I'm like this old’ train. said
“I go where the tracks take me/’

All that day we listened to the clackety click
music of steel wheels rolling on steel rails.
“That steel wheel music is my theme song.”
She stretched “My traveling music
as I go where the tracks take me.”

For years we followed that big iron road
tied to nothing but that steel rail song.
The Clackety click was our love song, our
march, our lullaby. We spent our youth
laughing at those who got stuck off the rails.

That ride was many long and weary years ago
the line, like manifold others, has been torn up.
The road ended for Sal and I:
I found a not too uncomfortable
sticking place, she followed the tracks…

But when I hear that clackety click
of steel wheels to steel rails singing, I wonder
where the tracks have taken her.
When I hear the whistle moan in the night
I wish that I had what I have not: The courage
to leave here and go where the track takes me