Why are we going so fast? It’s like sitting
on one of those new sewing machines –
Trains rush by wishing they could fly
because blackbirds don’t come here anymore.
What are those black marks then?
They’re all smeared now – were they crying?
Is it the sky again, pretending tears like rain;
just like you did, or was that your dad?
We’ll soon be past those freckles up there. I told you,
there are no more blackbirds to peck at your soul,
no more ants because we only buy fresh –
those are good grains in that bread – eat up.
stains and sewing machines; they never went this fast.
I wish she could keep up with the window as we ride,
but time and oily marks appear inside of lopsided lenses,
inside of those the countryside flits by at 125 mph
and her tired grey eyes can’t take it; her silver
hair drops as she watches crop circles in the carpet.
I eat my sandwiches on scratched Formica, steadying
my coffee’s plastic rumble on the surface while inside
my heart breaks watching the sweeping insensitivity of old age.
As it Comes 
wow – this tells such a story, in an interesting way, but the expression of the emotions is intense, and so well done, by incredibly chosen phrases – the scene painted so vividly in my mind! great piece 😀
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Thank you for saying. it was an experiment of sorts, but glad you read it and liked it.
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I like how this works on different levels: a personal view of aging and also a warning about how ‘we’ are altering the face of our planet. Well written.
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Thank you, Chris and for finding the hidden treasure.
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I really like this. The story unfolds and when I read only the words in italics I found another story. Wow.
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Thank you, Elaine. And for reading, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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Again, you have illustrated such an emotional, persuasive write here.
Alzheimer’s. Dementia. All and any forms of mental deterioration, none of them should ever be so callously written off ‘as being crazy’. To those closed-minded fiends..shame, shame on them. And to those victims -there are victims whether it be family, friends..such diseases of the mind -it is no one’s fault.
I wish there were more awareness of diagnoses and treatment.
Again, Anita, fine, fine writing you have here.
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Thank you dorna beans
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Anita, this is so moving, what a voyage into time passing and pieces fading. Just captured so vividly. Thank you.
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Thank you so much for those thoughts and for reading.
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It makes me think of my grandmother, of how people would go for “Sunday drives in the country,” and the trains I took on my trip to Scotland.
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Very nice. I love using the the rain. When I was small my gran would take me to the coast, which is very near, and the gap between train and platform was so wide, I would crawl over the divide in case I fell in lol.
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Lol. You do have to “mind the gap.” In the USA, we don’t travel by train very much at all.
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We reach the coastline that way and also city to city, we are smaller also. I am off now, it is late..good night, Rose. Tc.
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