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.