If only I had kept all my tickets

from every train journey I had ever taken,

I have no doubt they would stretch

from here

to there

and back once more

and would only be exceeded

by the amount of music

I have filled my brain

with, track by track, song by song,

over countless miles

to Plymouth and my great grandfather’s

home by the cliffs in Saltash,

to Newcastle to watch a gig or ten

the hour it took to get to Birmingham

from my Bicester home

when I just wanted to run away

and feel the tracks under my feet

and the beauty of tracks,

music in my head.

 

The numb of pain when batteries

fell flat, the slowing down

of the Marillion

or Supertramp time capsule

that I forever opened

between Salisbury and Bristol,

Salisbury and Exeter,

Salisbury and Waterloo…

Track by track I escaped

my days and nights,

New York To Niagara,

The greatest trek of them all,

Track by track by track,

the railroad, always the train

with only music and thought

for company.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016