For a year, recently, I lived in a house that stood about a hundred feet from a railroad track.

And while the day outside awaits,
the train runs with too much
sympathetic frequency.
Sympathetic frequency brings down bridges.
The house shakes, the cheap clock ticks,
the lamp vibrates.
I hope the foundation holds.
Hope mine holds.

Life is like a crib cage.
You can crawl around but you can’t get out.
The bars will stop you.
And if you escape…
Life is also an escape until you’re captured again.
I’ve escaped several times.
Each time I’m captured again,
roped into school, the Army, a wife, a job,
living in houses next to the track.
Life has many cops waiting to catch you if you step out line,
get out of your crib cage.

Of course
you could keep escaping
and be wily and avoid capture,
a truant for life become invisible.
Avoid the bars, frequent the bars.

But then you’ll be on the outside looking in
…again