on a train,
by not thinking about Larkin’s arrows
in ‘Whitsun Weddings,’
Auden’s insistent ‘Night Train’.

I tried to focus on the woman with steel lips
ignoring her daughter
from King’s Cross to York.

The man with a burnt small hand
en route to Aberdeen.

Mobile phones
prattled like fish in a fryer.
Not an arrow in sight.

.

Appeared in rain dog
Issue 14, June 2008

PO Box 68
Manchester
M19 2XD

You will also find Ryton’s own, Joan Johnston.