In my town and only
90 feet from my house
Run a pair of old tracks,
Railroad tracks older
Than my house, even
Older than me, and I
Am become old, very,
Very old, like a tree
Whose branches
Betray it with
Every strong wind
And fall to ground
Leaving less and
Less of the tree.
I used to walk in
Between those
Carefully laid
Iron rails, stepping
On the worn wood
Of the old ties as
Though they were
Made of glass….
I walked the length
Of my small town,
I walked the world.
I walked where
Passenger trains
Carried lives and
Their once warm,
Now cold, dreams
And I was part of
Each life, now gone
To ether and mist,
And so too my
Lonely soul will
Ride those rails
One bright day.
Still, a freight train
Comes by once or
Even twice a week,
And I thrill to hear
Its wailing horn as
it cries out for a
forgotten glory,
and the ground
still shakes a bit
as the old train
lumbers slowly
by my house and
I wait a holy wait
For the music of
Its rumbling and
The cry of its old
Heart as a young
Engineer pulls the
Whistle and sees
Not that he is
Driving eternity.
Nolo Segundo, pen name of L.j.Carber, 77, became a published poet in his 8th decade in over 190 literary journals in 15 countries on 4 continents. A retired teacher [America, Japan, Taiwan, the war zone of Cambodia, 1973-74], he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and thrice for Best of the Net. Cyberwit.net has published 3 collections: The Enormity of Existence [2020]; Of Ether and Earth [2021]; and Soul Songs [2022]. These titles like much of his work reflect the awareness he gained when he had an NDE whilst nearly drowning in a Vermont river: That he has—IS--a consciousness that predates birth and survives death, what poets since Plato have called the soul.