A distant train whistle cuts the thick of night
Echoing a lonesome sound, strange comfort
Signaling there is someone out there
Driving two hundred tons of steel
Through the slumber of country towns
Night animals pause in their star-lit wanderings
Through the pines to measure
The danger in the train drawing near
My grandfather once heard a train at night
Not the drone of the diesel driven Norfolk Southern
But the high pitched whistle of a steam engine’s approach
Rolling over moon-kissed rails
He pulled his hands from the wedge
In the waist line of his pants
Donned his shoes and hurried us to the car
We raced through the sleepy streets
Of our little town
To catch the long ago train of his youth
Watching as it passed, I saw
A spreading smile,
his eyelids came to rest
As the whistle faded into the dark fields of the night
9-25-17
©2020 Lenny Wells
Thoughts From The Orchard 