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  • With My Mother, Missing the Train
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With My Mother, Missing the Train

Helena Nelson

She was always late. At the final minute
we’d run for the city train, which roared right past,
its line of faces scanning us not in it.
The world was turned to terror by the blast
of hot departing wheels. Air seized my mother,
crushing her flustered skirts into a flurry
with me there clinging. Hush, there’ll be another,
she’d say to keep me calm. No need to worry.
But there was a need. The speed of things was true
and rushing traffic urged us both ahead.
I wanted to race again, to burst right through
and make the great train wait. She never said
that missing things was serious, till I grew.
She held my hand more tightly than I knew.


Helena Nelson

from Plot and Counter-Plot (Nottingham: Shoestring Press, 2010)

Reprinted by kind permission of the author.

Tags:

mothers trains
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Helena Nelson

Helena Nelson was born in Cheshire, and now lives in Fife. She is a poet and publisher, the founder editor of HappenStance Press.
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