If my train will come by Katrina Porteous
If my train will come,
Quietly, in the night,
With no other sound than the slow
Creak of wheel upon wheel;
If, huge as a house but brighter,
Crouched at the edge of the fields
Like a steaming beast, it is waiting
Down the deserted road;
Though the colliery gate and the church
Where my mother and father were wed
Are all grown over at last
And the people I knew there dead now,
If a stranger alights
And, holding my breath, I see
That he has your eyes, your hair,
But does not remember me;
And if there follows a girl
With my face from years ago
And for miles by the sides of the tracks
The Durham grasses blow -
O, if my train will come
With its cargo of souls who have passed
Over this world to find me,
Will I go? Will I want to?
Art by Philip Bannister
Recommended listening: Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Links of the Day: Internet Accuracy Project Awful Library Books Understanding Art: Cast Studies by Nerd Writer