Waiting for a Train

Two silly people
asked me point-blank

as if I were on trial
“How about romance?”

They didn't specify whose romance—
mine or the railroad'’s

and since I wasn‘t under oath
1 didn't have to tell them

that this affair of the heart
has gone on for years

with midnight trains
writing me songs of love

which I always answer
from my darkened room

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.