Swift Passage

The old back fence had one good rail on which
I sat. From there I watched the train, its stack
unfolding puffs of smoke that dared to hitch
like latticework to low hung clouds. And back
in town the diesels came on home like bands
of thick-skinned giants. Though steam engines wore
the crowns, as you would say, your muscled hands
with slick, black grease, dismantled them. They'd roar
and seek the yard that one last time. Today
I stare at wheels that flow like rain on tracks
of sleek, hot steel and feel the trembling gray
of daring strength. Behind thin panes, the backs
of hidden faces that I never knew,
amid reflections there, of me and you.


Lorraine Geiger
First Place FSPA contest Category #4
Published: Florida State Poets Association Anthology 8

Beymorlyn Sonnet
Rhyme scheme on second word of each line as well as at the ends.
There are 14 lines.
Written in Iambic Pentameter with 5 beats per line