enjoy this Christopher Hivner writing
in the Scars Publications free 2011 PDF file chapbook: The Silence Brushes
My Cheek Like Glass
(click on the front cover image or the
title text to download the free PDF file)
Arrivals and Departures
Christopher Hivner
The train whistles
a haunted greeting
from a mile away
while we wait
on the dock
for its arrival.
We answer the greeting
in our own ways,
with impatience,
gratitude, longing or
resignation at its
inevitability.
The woman in blue
will get aboard
because it’s what
she must do
while the man
in the funeral suit
needs to get on
before the suit
becomes his skin.
The family at the front
can’t wait to start
their adventure
but the man
next to them
with the wild eyes
hates them for their joy.
The tracks clatter and shake
as the behemoth
rolls on,
controlled by ordinary men
but capable of wrath.
The train whistles
a haunted greeting as it approaches.
The pack answers
with their collective eyes
on its belly.