sitting around on grassy hill watching the freight cars
creepy crawly come into the yard, sky turning industrial gray
slap bang into each other just another day
air brakes hissing, couplers coupling and uncoupling
boxcars in a crayon box of colors, mostly faded
looking sad like their far from home and family
keep a picture in their wallet
hopper cars hopped up on street something
gondolas loaded up with scrap metal
coal from the mines of hard scrabble west virginia and other points east
crude oil in tank cars filled by crude men
whose god is a full flask
auto transport cars all metaled up to keep
the rockthrowers from scoring
flatcars with truck trailers riding piggyback
flat car riders have disappeared into railroad history
it’s getting dark now, red and white lights of automobiles in the distance
flickering on lonely interstate bridge
dusty red or green lights prominent among the black metal
diesel locomotives having put in a hard day’s work have clocked out
a short sleep for the night in the cold
another hard day of work tomorrow
now in the dark stumbling my way to the trackside coffee house
to warm up and dream about the old days as a boomer
