HOLD ON TIGHT

HE SAID, MARIE, MARIE, HOLD ON TIGHT And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. ~ The Waste Land, "The Burial of The Dead", Eliot Monday, June 02, 2008 The Summer Train He lived in a house near the railway tracks. All through the night, the cargo trains would sound their inhuman calls, whoooo whoooo whoooo When he was younger, they would recur like bad dreams. Prowl the night like wolves. In the history of poetry, writing about trains has got to be the most overtraveled and worst route to take. I dragged him screaming and kicking into Ezra Pound’s and Paul Theroux’s train with a map and digital camera and I LOVE NY t-shirt. God, not not Ezra Pound. Anything but Pound, he yelled. We sat on his futon, waiting to board. I was leaving winter, arriving into spring. The cold tapped my shoulders, brusque and impertinent, asking if I had a ticket into this country. The terrible thing about those cargo trains was that no one rode them, he said. Completely empty, they whistled in the dark like ghost trains. I did not know what I was doing in New York, except that I would be spending three months here when I was supposed to be in another country. But there is a train filled with letters. They fly across the land like pigeons. Summer announced its arrival with a screech and a stop. We stepped into the train, and fell asleep. posted by dawn # 8:06 PM Comments: Post a Comment << Home		[publishing] Publishers Weekly . Dystel & Goderich . New York Center for Independent Publishing . Association of American University Presses . Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators [people] clarisse . nurul . aunty zarina (ummi's bakery) . jeremy . pak . cyril . softblow . karen & kenny (booksactually) . eric . joel . [other loves] digitaljournalist . ballet dictionary . poetshouse . urbanwordnyc [me] dawn, singapore, new york city, ithaca. [yesterday] i heart new york beautiful justin running with donald tired feeling whimsical love and desire gum and media guns and boys making magic [archives] January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009

HE SAID, MARIE, MARIE, HOLD ON TIGHT

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

~ The Waste Land, "The Burial of The Dead", Eliot

Monday, June 02, 2008

The Summer Train

He lived in a house near the railway tracks.

All through the night, the cargo trains would sound their inhuman calls, whoooo whoooo whoooo

When he was younger, they would recur like bad dreams. Prowl the night like wolves.

In the history of poetry, writing about trains has got to be the most overtraveled and worst route to take.

I dragged him screaming and kicking into Ezra Pound’s and Paul Theroux’s train with a map and digital camera and I LOVE NY t-shirt. God, not not Ezra Pound. Anything but Pound, he yelled.

We sat on his futon, waiting to board.

I was leaving winter, arriving into spring. The cold tapped my shoulders, brusque and impertinent, asking if I had a ticket into this country.

The terrible thing about those cargo trains was that no one rode them, he said. Completely empty, they whistled in the dark like ghost trains.

I did not know what I was doing in New York, except that I would be spending three months here when I was supposed to be in another country.

But there is a train filled with letters. They fly across the land like pigeons.

Summer announced its arrival with a screech and a stop. We stepped into the train, and fell asleep.

posted by dawn # 8:06 PM

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