The Voyage

Softened whispers were filling the stifling
Carriage air as the gently swaying seats
Lulled their passengers into a sleepless
State of coma. The window beside me
Bore something at which I marvelled, I could
Not contemplate how it showed me the things
It did, yet it upset me that it would
So coldly shift the spectres which floated
From their shallow holes to well up for such
A brief moment that I might glimpse them ‘fore
They dissipate. Past fields of verdant green,
Laced with threads of spring’s earliest paints. The
Adopting sun illuminated the
Barbed horizon which stood up like soldiers
Saluting their passing commander. Farm
Yards with watching hay ricks standing tall sped
Past us. As we swept on in a sense of
Trivial purpose, I could see the eyes
Of playful mice within the grass, staring
At the locomotive fleeing from the
Vast shadow the sun had begun to cast
As it set its head upon its folded
Arms and gazed lazily off into a
Far-off place where they would rise and begin
The day anew. And then, as though we passed
An unknown, unseen and unexpected
Border to somewhere just the same, the ground
Disappeared from view. A massive mouth moved
And slackened its earthen jaw, and below
I gasped inwardly at the jagged teeth
Which lined the slavering river back
Into a body no-one could foretell.
From my perch, I glimpsed the darkening shapes
Of crooked men sitting by the flowing
Stream, not troubled by the blinding shapes made
By the final rays of daytime. Then, look!
Beside us! The birds are flying with us!
How odd it felt to see the creatures with
Us. Their closeness to the train gave me thought
That they had the same wonders, and I, for
A moment, entertained the thought that as
We have managed to conquer their skies with
Our great flying machines, they have tried in
Kind to understand our land, yet seeing
Us up here as one of them might set some
Confusion in working for them! And as
I smiled at the image, then came the land
Again. The birds disappeared, the orifice closed,
And the engine returned. Then dark. Total
Darkness. Impenetrable darkness. Not
Darkness made by nature, but the thund’rous
Darkness made by the hypnotic rhythm
Of the machine’s great heart, clashing with stone
Walls, which enclosed us with cold fingers. It
Was not a reassuring darkness, like
That of the night, for one knows that the day
Will out shine it again soon - the kind of
Darkness that one would expect from casket
Walls. Speed on. Then to my sadness we came
To the station in the full clutch of night-
Time. The hypnotic rhythm slowed. The
Softened whispers rose. The gently swaying seats
Seemed to jolt the passengers from their place,
And they edged towards the doors. All I can
Hope for now, is that this same journey will
Give such expectedly unexpected 
Memories to me again. Now, as I
Leave slow, I turn, and say thank you for the voyage.

End.