Time Spent on Trains

The time spent on trains is both fleeting

and contemplative.

The landscape flicks between dark tunnel

and exotic scenery,

like slides on an old projector.

It’s so quick, so quick…

But there’s so much time to think about it passing.

The time spent on trains is different

than time spent on airplanes,

as it actually requires investment

in the environment.

It makes the destination that much more rewarding,

because of a participation in the journey.

The time spent on trains is a community time.

A group of travelers—

united by the need to relocate.

Watching people’s lives exist,

and for a fleeting second existing with them…

but then passing through to different destinations.

The time spent on trains is spellbinding.

The cars curl around the coast

of a narrow, snaking fjord.

Mountains climb straight out of the water,

while white strings of waterfall pull the rocks back down.

The little houses seem impossibly nestled

between sheer cliff walls,

as if someone challenged the builders

that the terrain would be too difficult to create upon,

and they responded by composing a cottage,

amongst the steepest granite measures.

The time spent on trains can be endlessly filled.

For the girl with the red lock of hair

falling into her face,

it is a time to peruse a beloved Norwegian novel.

For the man in the black hat,

it is time to snooze and snore.

And for the busy knitting fingers of seat 34,

it is perhaps a time for gifts,

as a small ribbed sock slowly grows

from her four thin needles.

It’s funny how a once familiar lifestyle

may seem completely incomprehensible,

when one is in a different place.

A time that was so easily accessible,

now seems like a distant melody to someone else’s fantasy.

The misty mountain swirls make the atmosphere feel

like a deeply introspective movie,

but it never gets past the opening scene.

The train jerks so violently at moments

it’s a wonder that it doesn’t derail.

Dark black tunnel outside

threatens to skin clean the fingers

of any arm that dares leave the car.

But the wheels stay on the track.

And the train trundles on.

The time spent on train is a very special kind of time.