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Open Poetry #6

Travelin' Memory's Lane

John Yaws
Senior Member

since 1999-10-09

Posts 860
Texas

0 posted 2000-02-08 11:28 PM

Somewhere on the right-of-way,
There flickers one small flame.
A hobo hunkers near the blaze...
A man without a name.

Bearded, dirty; ragged clothes-
A face that’s drawn with strain..
Fourteen hundred miles from home
Just waiting for his train.

The wind is cold, and from the North
So damp, it feels like rain-
He has a chill, a wracking cough-
His eyes are dull with pain.

Sixty-two last March the first-
Too old to stand the strain...
Thinks, “If I make it home this time-
I’ll never leave again”.

Forty years of wandering-
Just memory remains.....
Of Bob, and Jack, and Joe, and Bill
And waiting for the trains.

Bob died in Milwaukee-
From a watchman’s blow-
And Jack? he fell beneath the wheels
The cold had made him slow.

Somebody told him Joe had froze-
Up in the Boston yards.
Time and tragedy it seems
Had taken all his pards.

Bill died of pneumonia-
Up on the Chesapeake-
He coughed and cried, and called his Ma
For mighty near a week..

He wants to see Magnolia trees-
Down on the Ponchatrain-
Another ‘bo out on the road-
He’s travelin’ Memory’s Lane.

Visit My Home Page
http://www.geocities.com/montcogunslinger/HomePage.html

Paul Hoekman
Member

since 1999-12-28

Posts 382
Harwinton Ct. U>S>A>

1 posted 2000-02-08 11:42 PM

GUNSLINGER!!!!
In a way we are all HoBo's on a train.
I couldn't help but read this with a
drawl/accent far different from mine.
It brought out the adventurous one in me.
For a while I lived in Evanston Wyo. and
many times watched the train jumpers.
Until I joined them.

bobbycat
Member

since 2000-02-06

Posts 233
USA

2 posted 2000-02-08 11:47 PM

Wow...very descriptive...great job!

Bobbycat =^..^=

Echo Rhayne
Senior Member

since 1999-09-17

Posts 1495
Canyon Country, CA

3 posted 2000-02-09 04:11 PM

I love it G.S

Did Jesus laugh?
I think He did,
'cause He was once
a little kid;
and all of us
were made with joy
both sugar-spice girl
and snake-snail boy!

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