Talking to God by the train tracks

Six years old
Already master
Of turning wheels
Motion and speed,
Quick flicks of fingers
Tug trains
This way, that way

Seven days it took
To fit wooden block on
Wooden block
Line the trees
Just so (One
Turned, hiding tooth marks
From the dog)

The creator's eyes
Scan the scene
Pleased, resting
Forgetting...
Wheels chug along
Slow
At first

Thoughts grow
Louder, louder
"I can make them."
Faster, faster
And like a table top God
By his hand
They crash.

Clanking wood caboose
Tipped over
Torn from its mate
Until his mercy
Bestowing life
Rights the wrong,
Joins train to train.

Raptures and prayers
Of thanks
Sent up in his honor;
Fits shake his body
Maniacal laughter
Spit out -
They crash again!

But this crash
Hits a memory:
It's Sunday.
Already
Her shrill voice
Commanding attention
Obedience,

She enters.
Hair tidy
Face in an anger
The wooden ruler
Raised,
Punishment for being late
For church.

"Stop your playing
Get dressed."
The ruler smashes
Splintered flesh
Knocks him
From his throne;
Now she is the goddess

Her Sunday dress,
Her showing up
At the pew
As if to say,
"This is my God: the doing"
And he longs to say,
"This is my God: the being."

Too late
Gone off the rails
Tracks run on
Like abandoned conversation
Won't play this game
Again,
She didn't know
And never would.

Reviews

[m3lody mae]

WOW!! This is so very well written and said, so nicely done

[jacob erin-cilberto]

wow i got visions from this....my grade school nuns, God creating the world and as a little kid, me creating a layout with my Lionel trains...
creating a world for the engines to drag the cars...and then the idea of going off the rails.
remembering us doing things that were bad in school and getting the rulers as they smashed our knuckles.
we just had to play didn't we.
we crashed with our behaviour
and often I ran my toy trains off the tracks.
well, i had to play the game...we all did.
i just love how this poem plays upon my imagination.
j.