Monday, July 7, 2014

An American on a train - ghazal


I can be whatever I please for a while, an American on a train
I can snarl and trip little kids in the aisle, an American on a train

If the moon is chasing my werewolf phase I can slip into clouds of oubli
In German or French I can fool them and smile, an American on a train

See them skim in and out without knowing the stories I spin about them, about me
I marry them, wait for them, love single file, an American on a train

With the lurching I fall into strangers and laps but the smilepardons set us aright
And I know I'm still me, even stacked in a pile, an American on a train

I am old enough now I can snap them all up in my memory-washed rainbow traps
All they see is my middle-aged blandself, sans guile, an American on a train

When the fancystrike hits me just so, I can make my own movie at grandmagic speed
Stardraped with blinding invisible style, an American on a train

Where we go doesn't matter. The rushing makes bitterness sweet if I watch it askew
The hopewaking comes to me mile after mile, an American on a train.

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