The Train

We’re all down here on a long, long train

To be taken for a ride,

As the signs flash past each year, we gasp

At the changing countryside,

Each mile is a passing minute, and

Each year is a passing mile,

The further we get from the starting point

The more that it seems worthwhile.

 

Each coach is numbered a different year

It depends when we got on,

Each coach was first hooked on at the back

But then it will move along,

The train gets longer with every mile

As we slowly move to the front,

And nothing can stop this railway ride

He gave as his covenant.

 

We know there’s a tunnel coming up

It’s somewhere around the bend,

We left our names at the starting point

There’s a headstone at the end.

I drop my poems along the track

For the ones that are far behind,

In hopes that they might remember me

As a man who was simply kind.

 

My children are twenty coaches back

My parents further ahead,

They’ve both gone into the tunnel now

Past a light that’s showing red.

That tunnel’s ahead for all of us

As each coach will end its ride,

But isn’t it going to be glorious

When we pass out the other side?

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

This poem is very poignant for me at this moment in my life.

These lines, in particular, really resonate with me:

"We left our names at the starting point
There’s a headstone at the end.
I drop my poems along the track
For the ones that are far behind,
In hopes that they might remember me
As a man who was simply kind."

I think that you are so much more than "simply kind," and I really admire you for the life you have lived. You are well travelled, in life and mind, and this is reflected in your writing.

[Daniel Sala]

What a beautiful description of life, the metaphors work very well; and 'though it's probably my imagination, the rhythm is reminiscent of the clickety-clack of a train in motion.
What fascinates me is why this excellent poem has only had three reviews out of 109 reads, but still...

[Marie]

I don't fear the end at all...certainly not the tunnel....I wonder why'll be waiting for me at the last stop...?

[Tate Morgan]

Oh yeah This one speaks to me . i fear that end.But the ride has so far been glorious if not sublime. So soldier on until the end .