My Train

by Paul David Thomas

My train to nowhere
loaded with empty luggage
and empty dreams
and streams of sleeper cars
empty of weary children.
Steam engine fueled by thoughts,
a ticket bought at empty station.
Ride, ride the ghost’s track.

A city’s creation--villains and thieves.
The day is always through the next tunnel,
but even the best runner cannot escape the night
that will not wait for late arrivals,
that will not wait to take your ticket

or throw you off at the next stop.
The vacant seats grow weary
and weeping trees lament the night.
Bottles of liquor drink themselves
and crystal wine glasses fall from lonely shelves,
and no one else,
left to call the destination.

My train to nowhere,
loaded with empty dreams
and screams from the Boxcar Children
orphaned in the dining car.
Virgin spirits drift,
and abandoned newspapers
waver in cold despair.

My train to nowhere
loaded with empty mysteries
and a city’s empty dream.


*Paul David Thomas at MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/circusreject

I felt like a hamburger

by Paul David Thomas

I felt like a hamburger standing in the rain
waiting for her
water and stale beer
running down my nose and chin

We agreed to meet under this tree at three
Now I am here and my shoes
covered in mud my jeans
torn from the fence
The two tickets in my back pocket
are soaked and the destination
has washed away
along with my freedom

God damn if it doesn’t rain against me
always raining when I had to work
or on my wedding day
or on the day they took me to jail.

And that night
the rain
the worst the city has
seen in years
and that
after a year of drought

Fuck irony
now I have to haul
these suitcases
back to the hotel

then go find another bar that
might still be open that
might have more whiskey
than water