Platform One (Earthbound)
WIIERE it is always and is never, day, Vistas are sharp with spairks on stone and track And desolation's quays a,te stroked with wind Warm from the metals, then a listening Settles upon impatience like a film,
Strains for some stirring in the womb of black.
Then juggernaut irrupts, a fist of sound, Its destination like a furious eye Storming, with all its crashing, goaded length, The platform's shattered shell of vacancy. Shuddered to halt, it grudgingly expels Breath and its passengers in one long sigh ; But when the occupation's past, the train Squalling away among the ribs of tarth, The tunnel drowns with silence, slowly builds A dark, impenetrable universe.
The voiceless minutes draw its mouth to grim Indifference of the dreamfast gates of death.
P. A. T. O'DONNELL.
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