PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

The black soft-top sports car
abandoned to the icy night

its pop-up headlight eyes
frozen open in the morning light,

looking sweetly comical,
like Thomas or James

in the kids’ railway books
- such orderly games

where no real damage
is ever really done

and even the Fat Controller
is part of the harmless fun.

The little car was startled
by red sky in the morning

and the careful car driver
took it as a warning

that it’s safer to play
on pretend road and rail

there won’t be a problem
when the toy tracks fail,

or when a plastic Jumbo
plummets to the ground

with a noisy little boy
making the crashing sound.

The poseable figures
now tilt their simple heads

and in the pretty dolls’ house
they leap from tiny beds

dashing to the window
with a helpful, girly hand,

gasping at the carnage
on the moulded farmland.