The train began to track its path
Past many different stations
Whilst she sat back, impatient
Just to reach her destination
She watched each station slide on by,
Past hills and streams and roads
The doors would open and each time
She’d sit and watch them close
So people passed like flashing lights
In lives she would not share
Their laughter skimmed the glass and left
Whilst she remained right there
She watched as birds went soaring
Fast and free and wild and high
Their wings wove paths she would not take
Beneath the clear-blue sky
She watched as trees were bending
To a wind she couldn’t feel
And saw only the narrow view
The windows could reveal
The world outside her carriage
And beyond the silver track
Was like a living painting -
But she never once looked back
Adventure sat and waited
Every time the train would stop
And she felt the pause, the bated breath
But never once stepped off
She never took her chances
To go out and breathe it in
So she never heard the birds
Or felt the whirling of the wind
At last she saw a sign that named
The very final station
And she stepped on to the platform
Of her final destination
The train then vanished into smoke
No echo left to stay
She turned to speak, to chase its sound
But it had slipped away
Nothing else surrounded her -
No people, hills or trees
No grand adventure waiting
And no birdsong on the breeze
And suddenly she saw
Her journey's twists and turns and bends
As something to be lived - not watched -
Whilst racing to the end
And as she stood where rails ran out -
Where journeys went to die
She knew at last the truth too late:
She’d let life pass her by
*****
A new poem that I've had the bones of since 2023 (if you've watched my notebook video on YouTube, you might even have spotted the ending of this one!) I finally finished it for my Patreon site a few weeks ago.
Becky Hemsley 2026
Beautiful artwork by Elena
Source: Becky Hemsley Poetry on Facebook
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