National Poetry Writing Month - April 20, 2014

Tonight, I came as close as I ever want to to seeing someone get hit by a commuter train. I've seen the aftermath more than once, and I know I will see more and more as the years go by. But I hope I never actually see someone get hit.

Too Close For Comfort

Sitting near the tracks, I watch the world pass by

Car and pedestrians on their merry ways

Enjoying a pleasantly warm Easter evening

All hopefully headed home to families and the night

Down come the barricades, flashing lights and bells

All of the cars stop. After all, I'm right there

Women with strollers pause at the line

The rotating light on the engine passes us by, north to the next stop

The fiberglass arms stay down; the bells and lights stay on

Another train approaches, this one from the other direction

It's not an express, it's speed isn't that great

But a seven car train and engine doesn't stop on a dime

I hear the whistle blare out it's warning tone

I see the now sweaty and fear-stricken face running

Across the tracks. As the train approaches

He makes it with feet to spare

When the cars clear out and the mothers are gone

I pull up to the man and think for a second

How badly should I berate him

For his nearly deadly error in judgement?

One look at his face tells me that it's probably not needed

His eyes are wide and glassy; there are beads of moisture on his brow

He knows that he is lucky tonight

Maybe the luckiest man in the entire city tonight

We speak for a couple of minutes and I send him away

A bit wiser now that he's cheated death

And on his way to the store on the corner he goes

To pick up whatever sundry items he'd been sent for

Back in my car I'm as grateful as he is

Not that I was almost killed by tons of steel this night

But that I wasn't witness to his death this night

And that our lives go on as they were before the train passed us by