the midnight train

 the crossing caught me

at midnight
on the empty two lane
great red warning bulbs
flashing
in the still air.

shoving the gear shift into park
i shut the engine down
and, windows open
i fastened onto the rhythm
of the train.

shuka SHUKA shuka
SHUKA shuka

from deep southern illinois
coal cars lumbered
laden
to light chicago
to run its workhorse factories
to fuel its ovens
and blaze its highways
streets and alleys.

shuka SHUKA shuka
SHUKA shuka

expansive fields of grain
yawned to my left and right
their aroma
heavy and sweet.

my thoughts traced
decades distant
to the arkansas
cotton belt line
three miles
from my bed
lulling me to sleep
its great horn tumbling
back to my little boy ears.

shuka SHUKA shuka
SHUKA shuka

a midnight train
assumes the duty
of not simply transporting coal
but memories as well.

when it finally passed

shuka SHUKA shuka
SHUKA shuka

and the gates rose
the red flashers resigned
to midnight blackness
i sat a moment in the
space between yesterdays
and tomorrows
and absorbed the comfort
of the fading...

shuka SHUKA shuka
SHUKA shuka

...midnight train.

Whether it's an electric toy train around a Christmas tree, or thousands of tons coal train...they all move freely through my heart and mind. Once upon a time, I worked for the Illinois Central...the only thing Abraham Lincoln and I share in our histories.