Journey by Rae Louise Jones

The Train Journey
By Rae Louise Jones

Cities and towns and fields and stretches of absolute nothingness, / Speeding through a lifetime just to see your face once more. / Plugged in, the singing songs through my headphones, / The soundtrack to my anticipating thoughts of our joyful reunion. / I nibble at my lunch, bought at the station from which my journey began, / I’m thinking of you, trying to imagine your own anticipating thoughts of my arrival back home.

I ignore the loud and restless children just a few seats away; / I was once your own, as we travelled these metallic strings, / My young and naïve boredom, as we journeyed to meet your fashionable friends. /
Through tunnels I sigh with bliss, I hold my breath to hear the familiar, haunting, whining sounds / As the train pulls away from alien stations. / I phone to let you know how long I shall be. I can hear your voice, but it’s just not the same.

How early will you get there? Are you as excited to see me as you say you are? / Will you run towards me, scoop me in your arms, spin me into the air? / I guess I’m too old for that now. Silently I slipped away this morning / From stuffy rooms filled with other people’s mess and their messy mistakes / To return to the thing I’d never wanted to leave behind. / I clutch in my hand the letter you sent me, not long after I’d first left. / Were they my tears or yours that smudged your words upon the page?

The train pulls into the station. My heart is beating ever so fast. / The speakers greet me with their “Mind The Gap” poetry. / The other passengers rush me onto the platform, without my feet ever touching the ground. / Where are you? You said you’d be here on time. / My first dancing moments back home are spent dodging between commuters, / Dragging my suitcase, scanning the scene, checking my ticket, checking the time, / Fearing the worst…


And then I see you.







We suggest perhaps pasting the poem into a word doc or such. Blog only alows a certain number of characters per line (anyone know how to change that please do tell)