On Trains

On Trains

As a child I loved watching the trains.
There’s something romantic about trains.
There’s something romantic about me.
I just did not know it back then.

I loved the forties movies in monochrome.
Romance was too brash in living color.
Railway stations should look sooty.
A lover left me by train once.
She took my young heart with her that day.
Romance is not always happy endings.

Trains are full of mystery and intrigue.
How many movies had trains as the place
where the hero fights the villain
until he falls out of a speeding express.

My fear on trains is not murder or mayhem.
It is passing backwards through my memory.
Into those memories where I don’t want to go.
To where lovers and hearts travel away
And leave me alone and heartbroken.

After all trains and movies are where
People who shouldn’t meet do.
Perhaps it’s better to meet someone
Just passing through spend a weekend
You only lose a weekend to ruin
Not your lifetime and not your heart.