PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

  

   1. Union Pacific's Bailey Yard, North Platte, Nebraska.

    It is the biggest train yard in the world.  

I understand there is an observation deck.  I want to see it.



   1. The scene in the movie Good Son where they run along

the train tracks.

   1. The tootsie roll commercial

   2. A book I had with a picture of a train

  at Smith's falls, ON

   3. Race for your life Charlie Brown, the train track through the wilderness scene.

   3. Back to the Future III, the scene at night with

the train track.  Actually a lot of that movie was based on

  the train.

   4. Duel with the truck and the train.  the train.

   5. In the train book, the train and the truck, the waterfall.

   6. I at Crystal lake, watched the trains go by.  I made a train tunnel in the sand.

   7. A train station, waiting for the double deck train to come.

    8. Inspector Gadget had a show about a train.  

    9. I read books, look at websites, watch videos on trains.

        Illinois has more miles of railroad tracks than any other state but Texas.

        Chicago, Illinois Bulls named because of all the bulls came there by train.



                     I.

        I hear them during the day.

        I hear them at night.

        I wake up to them.

        The trains.

Their whistles can be heard for miles and miles and miles across the plains.

         It's the only night sound.

         The sound travels through the night.

         Miles and miles and miles.

         I think about them.

         Going to St. Louis and Chicago.

         Going to Denver, Omaha, Lincoln, and Los Angeles.

         The trains

         traveling through the openness of

         The American Midwest

         Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado.

         The American West

         Wyoming, Montana.

         Mile after mile after mile.

         I wish I was on them.

         Someday, I will be.

  

            II.

      I think about them.

      I think about them during the day when I am at school.

      I talk to my friends about them.

      I draw pictures of them.

      I get books from the school library about them.

      I go to a small school, but it does have a good library.

      I get books from the public library about them.

      River, Iowa is a small town of 1,600 people, but it

      does have a good library.

      I think about them at night.

      Reading my library books about them.

      The moon, the stars, the black sky.

      Two tracks.

      Two tracks running on and on through the night forever.

      

      

               III.

    I read about the Civil War and all the track that was laid.

    I read that a line going from New York to San Francisco was completed on May 10, 1869.

    I read about all the different kinds of passenger and freight train cars.

    I read about all the different things that trains carry.

    I read about where they go.

    I read about how track is laid.

    I read about all of the different people who work with trains.

    I read about how things get to trains, how they get loaded on and off trains, and where they go, after they leave trains.



                 IV.

    My father was on a train once

    Going from Denver back home to Iowa

    The train was going to Chicago.

    He looked out the window.

    He saw nothing.

    Absolutely nothing.

    Absolutely, positively, nothing.

    Nothing but plains and grass.

    Nothing but plains and grass for miles and miles and miles.

    It was like he and the people on the train were the only people in the world.

    It was like the train was the only thing in the world.



                  V.

He thought about hearing the train whistle across the openness.

The miles and miles and miles.

He thought of running fast and far to see the train.

Of watching it go by, of all the cars, the people, the freight.

Of waving to the engineer, watching and hoping he would wave.

Of being so excited when he did, of being so disappointed, when he did not.

Of being so excited when he would pull the whistle for him.

On to a great city.

East to St. Louis and Chicago.

West to Denver, Omaha, Lincoln, and Los Angeles.

Then, when it was gone, walking back home.



               VI.

  At night, lying in bed on the train.

  My father could hear a train whistle.

  He knew it was coming from the locomotive, only a short distance away.

  That and the train were the only sounds.



               VII.

  My father was on another train one time.

  He told me all about it.

  It was in Oregon.

  A state he told me, that is 1,000 miles away from here.

  He was on a business trip, going from Los Angeles to Seattle.

  The train passed over a high, long, bridge over a big river.

  He could see a very big forest.

  My father and I wonder what kinds of animals live in the river.

  My father and I wonder what kinds of animals live in the forest.

  My father and I wonder how far it is to the nearest people.

  A big wilderness.

  On the train, there are things to do, people to talk to, a lot going on.

  

              VIII.

          My father met all kinds of people on the train.

          A teacher from Seattle.

          A lawyer from Portland.

          A doctor from Sacramento.

          A businessman from San Francisco.

          A supermarket manager from Los Angeles.

          All brought together by the train and their need to

          go somewhere.



              IX.

     There is another small town, nearby Forest, Iowa.

     Forest, Iowa is in the middle of nowhere.

     Every week, there is the train.

     The train things from the big city to the small town.

     The bigger city of Chicago.

     Every week, that is the social event in Forest.

     "Do you want to see the train come in with me?"

      is a date question

     Every week, that is the big excitement in Forest.

     It is really, really, really big.

     It is bigger than University of Iowa football.



              X.

There are a lot of train stations in this country.

They are in big cities and small towns.

Some are in the middle of nowhere.

I think about the anticipation and the excitement of somebody coming or going.



               XI.

       In the wilderness, there may be nothing but the tracks.

       The tracks are the only way in or out.

       If we get lost, the tracks will lead us out.

       I think about when they were built.

       It took a long time.



                XII.

   I think about the movies I have seen with tracks in them.

   Race for your life, Charlie Brown.

   The scene at night with the one train track.

   The track that goes through the woods and by the river.

   I think about what it would be like to ride a train through

   it.

  

                XIII.

I think about the other movies I have seen with tracks in them.

Derailed-both of them, Atomic Train, Broken Arrow,

Under Seige II

I think about the tracks in the middle of nowhere.

In the middle of the plains, in the mountains.

The tracks are the only way in or out.



               XIV.

  Back to the Future III.  Seeing the track in the darkness.

  I think about waiting for the train, knowing that it would

  not come until the morning.

  I think about being on a train in the 1800s.

  There were comfortable seats, dining cars, sleeping cars.

  I think about getting on a train at night.

  Ken Burns Civil War documentary

  There are two tracks over a bridge.

  That reminds me of parallel tracks in the plains.

  I look at them, and wonder how far they go.

  I wonder if they ever meet.

  They do not.

  That is so amazing.



               XV.

     That reminds me of my father's office.

     There is a warehouse right across the street.

     There are two tracks there.

     They are side by side, forever and ever.

     I wonder where they go.  

     I have been down the street, and they go down the street

     before turning away.

     I wonder where they go.

     North to Minneapolis.  South to St. Louis.

     East to Chicago.  

     West to Omaha, Lincoln, Denver, and Los Angeles.



            XVI.

     I was in Chicago, Illinois once.

     A bigger city.

     There was a train track right in the middle of the city.

     A train track right in the middle of the city.

     I could not believe it.

     It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.    

          

            XVII.

       I have a trainset.

       It's fun to do.

       I first saw it at a store in Denver.

       The big city.

       My family and I were there on vacation.

       It looked so fun, I begged my parents to get it for me.

       My dad helps me sometimes.

       I started with one train and a circle design.

       But then, it got bigger.

       Bigger and bigger.

       Now there are several trains, several tracks.

       Small towns and cities, roads and highways,

       Plains.

       I like to call out the names of stations that the train is going to arrive at.

       I saw a kid doing that on Are You Afraid of the Dark?

       I think it is OK to do.

  

                  XVIII.

         I play computer games about trains.

         In one game, I deliver things to area businesses.

         I could not do it.

         I tried.

         I would keep playing until everything ended.

A lesson in how important the train was in American History.

         The train is still important, but now there are other forms of transportation, trucks and planes,



         Train Simulator.

         That was a game I could do.

         My friend Chris, had it at his house.

         I loved it.

         I drive the Amtrak Acela from Philadelphia to Washington DC and back.

         I see highways, rivers, the Chesapeake Bay, and more.

         I drive the BNSF train through Montana.

         I see rivers and mountains.

         I see a Montana highway.

         I see a another Montana highway.

         I see towns.  Sometimes, there will be a home.

         Sometimes, there is nothing.

         I can drive other trains.



         I liked the game so much, I ordered my own copy.

         And, do you know what the best part is?

         The train game came by train.

         Can you believe it?

         The train game came by train.

                  

               XIV.

         Maybe I'll be a train engineer when I grow up.

I'll be the one who gets to drive the big locomotive.

I'll be the one who drives trains of hundreds of freight cars.

I'll be the one who drives trains of passenger cars.

Getting things and people to where they need to go.

I'll drive down the track, past a house, through cities and towns, over rivers and past mountains, and plains.

Plains where there is nothing to see for miles and miles.

Yes, maybe, I'll do that.