THE TRAIN was published in The Southern Review, 82(4):901 Autumn, 1992, and also appears in HOME WORKS: A Book of Tennessee Writers, Univ of Tennessee Press, 1996. This poem also appeared on the George Scarbrough reading tape, Ice Storm and Other Poems Read by the Poet, George Scarbrough (Iris Audio Publications, 1997.)
THE TRAIN
Tandem and straight we sat before
The washstand reading, my literate
Mother and I,while my unhappy father
Scoffed at us from his bed, restlessly
Turning in a room so small he could have
Reached out and torn the books from our
Hands. "A man can’t sleep with the lamp
Lit," he said. "Douse it. It’s late."
It was late. Eleven by the clock. We sat
On oblivious of time. "You make," he said,
"A short train with two cars," meaning
The local that ran past our house."It’ll
Get you nowhere," not knowing it had already
Carried us past all the houses he knew.
© George Scarbrough, 1992, 1996, 1997.
George Scarbrough comments: "Had my father been able to read, he might have looked into Ecclesiastes and found "of making books there is no end ... and much study is a weariness of the flesh," and so have quoted it in admonition instead of the price of lamp oil."