Railway Stations

Hudson Review, The, Spring 2004 by Dhuga, U S

After lunch in Marylebone,

I tried to find a telephone

To ring you up before

My train at four

To Oxford. But I was running late,

And knowing it was only eight

AM for you, I fetched

A taxi, watching London stretched

Out in the sun,

Rushing past me-Kensington,

Then Knightsbridge slipped away

Against the noonday

Failing light. The train pulled out

From Paddington with shouts

Of "Slough!" resounding

In the railcar. "Reading!"

Jolted me awake:

The grinding of the brakes

Filled me with the sense of consolation

I've always felt in railway stations.

But after a minute or two,

My thoughts lurched back to you:

Different landscapes; different names;

My loneliness remains the same.