If I could come back from the dead I’d want to wake in this warehouse of light, under a sky of white wood quilted by iron. It wouldn’t be, as some would have it, purgatory: no, there’s life hiving all around, giving light substance, giving energy form. If […]
The man who made the request stop
for Achanalt never left the train;
The stones face each other
in rows like booth-style
compartments in old trains.
for I could board tonight
to any of those unearthly destinations
whatever train I chose
from time to time snow sprinkles from the sky
/ the way flour sifts from a baker’s fist
/
/ grey steel pylons pose…
The train glides through a world of frozen white,
/ low mists swirl and smudge the mirror of the Clyde,
/ Helensburgh stretches…
The old couple
/ board the train
/ and make for a table
/ with facing seats.
/ The woman says
/ you sit here
/ and see where we’re going
/ I’ll sit…
We round the Brunel coast, in a train
/ crowded with bags and elbows. Tunnels gape
/ through mountains. Someone coughs. Now at sea:
/ the…
Each life echoing, acting out these myths: / going into darkness, re-emerging, wounds / and griefs healed over.
/ …
Everything seems ok.
/ Rabbis study in the Lublin yeshiva again
/ even if the Jewish Quarter
/ is still razed to the ground.
/ Trains leave just…
Soraidh slàn leis na trèanaichean orains a
/ ghiùlain sinn eadar Baile Ghobhainn ’s Partaig,
/ Sràid na Drochaid is Ceann a’ Chnuic ’s…
She was always late. At the final minute
/ we’d run for the city train, which roared right past,
/ its line of faces…
