A Train's Weather
On August the fifteenth post lunch hour the air
Over the rail flutters, of a lover the skin
The steel track swells and twists like a monstrous snake
Comes alive, scales screeching, slowly stirs
The Extreme Summer Heat has jumped to thirty five
On this moving body you puff, too hot to ride
And your metallic wheels on its metallic spine
Come to a stall
It is October now and the track is so wet
Inexhaustible rains of unexpected fall
On the railway the leaves weave a papery shawl
Such feast of colours - yellows and browns and reds
From untiring skies, coal-coloured, water-clogged
Relentless raging rains drizzle down on the rail
Metal in water rusts ! Your wheels on it derail !
With such Extreme Weather your body cannot cope
January fifteenth - they say Winter Has Come
The Cold Tightens Its Grip on the metallic track
It is Minus Zero ! There is snow on the track
Your metallic lungs freeze and your engines succumb
This last breath you exhale you exhale every year
Christmas in December is no bigger surprise
Than to see all winter these tracks covered in ice
Would there be a pattern to such Extreme Weather ?
So many things have changed since you first saw the day
The seasons were better in eighteen twenty five
Now, twenty thirteen, Britain is in dismay
There is no money left on which you could survive.
On August the fifteenth post lunch hour the air
Over the rail flutters, of a lover the skin
The steel track swells and twists like a monstrous snake
Comes alive, scales screeching, slowly stirs
The Extreme Summer Heat has jumped to thirty five
On this moving body you puff, too hot to ride
And your metallic wheels on its metallic spine
Come to a stall
It is October now and the track is so wet
Inexhaustible rains of unexpected fall
On the railway the leaves weave a papery shawl
Such feast of colours - yellows and browns and reds
From untiring skies, coal-coloured, water-clogged
Relentless raging rains drizzle down on the rail
Metal in water rusts ! Your wheels on it derail !
With such Extreme Weather your body cannot cope
January fifteenth - they say Winter Has Come
The Cold Tightens Its Grip on the metallic track
It is Minus Zero ! There is snow on the track
Your metallic lungs freeze and your engines succumb
This last breath you exhale you exhale every year
Christmas in December is no bigger surprise
Than to see all winter these tracks covered in ice
Would there be a pattern to such Extreme Weather ?
So many things have changed since you first saw the day
The seasons were better in eighteen twenty five
Now, twenty thirteen, Britain is in dismay
There is no money left on which you could survive.
