The train traveled far today so the whistle sounds faint
tired, perhaps, of the snow-muffled shrill of un-restraint.
A cool stove lay undisturbed, cool iron clean, all the day
while the ground leaked, forming my father’s bed a lake.
Two daughters slept and awoke to buy birthday boy gifts,
then flew home the helicopter, remote, controlled, adrift.
A husband fished for answers in a plumber’s busy way
only for rejection’s sake he pleaded dearly for his case.
For tomorrow can right itself in rhythmic steel drumming
and pulse below a calm repose in boredom’s humming.
For neither burst of pipe nor creativity’s pace may shatter
the week end’s closing call to the summer’s opening gala.
The hours longer and shorter still when poetry awakes
in bed the daylight long with trains, pipes, snow, skates.
An inspired screen tortured hard frozen bits slow falling
while thunderous trains traveled ever on, never stalling.
Words dry up, writing sours, turned to poetical blather
time to gather up my wits and return to other matters.
(and so ended my poetry half marathon)
In the gaze of the other 