Train Tranquility

Various couples stroll off into the night.

As if in a tempest,

Trees undulate and swell where the duos vanished,

Branches make not the slightest sound,

As if mimicking the train

Idly without movement on the maze of tracks.

Such is the moment for a man awakening

In a long train out of service

Isolated in a fog-filled railroad yard.

Yet…

The dining car’s tables of starched white cloth,

Adorned with wine glasses, fresh flowers

Save for the waiter’s white-glove hanging off the edge,

Become an anomaly to contemplate.

Silence continues in its accompaniment

Of the opaque darkness of space,

Even as the empty coach far in the rear.

Reveals the man of shadowy outline

Raising his pale hand as if to wave,

But to whom is the mystery,

As the watch of yellowed crystal on his wrist

Seems to have stopped years in the past.