Train Ticket

Window seat for one,
Passage out of town
The old fashioned way:
Train ticket, out bound.
Midnight departure,
Red-eye double-track.
Star filled horizons,
Beacons in the black.
Last call for boarding,
Destination: nowhere.
Two carry-on bags
Ought to get me there.
Don’t know how far
‘Til my journey’s done;
Train ticket, out bound,
Window seat for one.

 

We Drink Because We’re Poets prompt 11 has gotten yet another poem out of me.  This, despite my failed attempt to write *two* short stories this weekend, both of which are currently languishing in my draft folder in various states of disarray and incompletion.  I even know how they’re supposed to go, how they end, but for some reason I just can’t seem to find any satisfaction in how they’re coming out.

So I’ll dive instead into this poetry prompt, and thank you Oloriel for it!

What were the items you last shopped for? Use them, use those words to craft a poem, while making every word you use have a metaphorical meaning!

And wouldn’t you know it?  I read this prompt just after purchasing my train tickets to Oregon in a couple weeks’ time.

While I would say this poem is a metaphor, I will state unashamedly that what it is a metaphor *for* is limited only by the readers’ interpretation.  Oh, I certainly had my own in mind when I wrote it, but I think the expression is much broader than just that one thing.  In fact, I’d like to know what the poem means to you, whoever reads it.  What kind of image it evoked for you, what kind of metaphoric meaning it prompted in your mind!