November 26, 2017

What Train Travel Does

November 26, 2017/ Nick LeForce

I wrote this poem while traveling on Amtrak across the USA, starting with the California Zephyr from Sacramento to Chicago and then the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington DC. The photos show some of the amazing countryside of America.

When do you feel off track in your life and when on track? What do you do to slip off the old robes that no longer fit who you are as you evolve in life?

Living slo-mo, window gawking, letting
the world come to me easy on my eyes,
rocking with the sway of the car and
the crackling sound of wheels on track,

I imagine rolling into the last station,
rested and ready, feeling like
a child of wonder in the world,
a foolish grin on my face, as if I know
a certain secret that others seek.

Flush with purpose, I am on track in my life
and that odd sensation that I live
an accidental life now slips off, like
an old robe that no longer fits who I am.