A distant roar
And rumbling underneath the boards
Steaming past this freezing fort
Moving on through the mild frontier
To the engineer’s sing-song reverie.
I’ll be back by Halloween for sure!
Follow me I’m a freak
Casey Jones for a week
Off my gourd!
C’mon get on the train!
The speed will set you free today!
You can handle anything.
Magazines and candy wrappers on the floor:
Mars Bars, a tossed Timeout New York.
Hey, I’m one for reading trash but ain’t got time to check which band
Is in the club this week.
‘Cause there’s that crazed conductor screaming, “All aboard!
Albany! Rensaleah!”
This train is leaving.
Better bust past those machines
And blow that surplus on the surcharge at the seat.
‘Cause I can’t be late.
So I’m fumbling through my change
As I’m racing to the gate.
Almost flew into a rage
When I heard that crackling
Speaker sing,
“No passengers.”
Reminds me of the little I’ve read from John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. Trilogy. It’s got a 30s vibe going on (maybe the idea of picking up the newspaper, maybe just the train in general). Nice.
Very nice — transporting to trainspotting.
Relatable:
We’re always going to be able to have punctuation/formatting discussions with pieces like this, i.e. whether freeform is the way to go or whether there should be a readily discernible structure. It’s a toss up to me, though I’m a sucker for structure and consistency.
This pairs well with Eva Ness.
I wonder if engineers (or even pilots for that matter) develop that voice or actually work on it beforehand, like in a class.
Also, this reminds me of being the sole passenger on a train. There’s something different about it.