Tuesday poem #440 : Nathanael O’Reilly : Freight Train

 

 

I can always hear a freight train
from beyond the cemetery
the rumble of wheels on steel
tracks carrying across the tomb-
stones, crosses and graves 

I can always hear a freight train
from the east end of the street
traveling through live oaks
magnolias and crepe myrtles
over the traffic islands 

I can always hear a freight train
under the gap beneath the window-
pane between the door and the frame
horn blowing before level crossings
blasting warnings through darkness 

I can always hear a freight train
crossing the continent
negotiating the great divide
traversing the great plains
from Omaha to Cheyenne 

I can always hear a freight train
reminding me of lost homes
absent loves, missed opportunities
boxcars not taken, doors never
forced open, wagons left empty 

I can always hear a freight train
when I lie awake before dawn
remembering distant homelands
yearning to go back in time
act, move, love, risk, jump, fly, fall 

I can always hear a freight train
moving oil, coal, steel and grain
echoing through the night
never letting me forget
there is always another journey

 

  

Note: The line I can always hear a freight train is from the Counting Crows song “Raining in Baltimore.”

 

Nathanael O’Reilly is an Irish-Australian poet; he teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Arlington. His books include (Un)belonging (Recent Work Press, 2020); BLUE (above/ground press, 2020); Preparations for Departure (UWAP, 2017); Cult (Ginninderra Press, 2016); Distance (Ginninderra Press, 2015); Suburban Exile (Picaro Press, 2011); and Symptoms of Homesickness (Picaro Press, 2010). His poems have appeared in journals & anthologies published in fourteen countries, including Antipodes, Anthropocene, Cordite, The Elevation Review, Mascara, Skylight 47, Strukturriss and Westerly. 

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan