Learning to read

the British Rail National Timetable

was a rite of passage

I enjoyed early

as my mum

would invariably

restrict me to one comic

only, purchased at the station,

as we made our way from Birmingham

to Plymouth

when I was a small boy;

exotic names, unheard of treasures

would find their way

worm like and lay eggs forever

into my subconscious.

I lament the passing

of such information,

lost to print it seems,

found only as an A to Cornwall,

a B to Manchester, London, Newcastle, Inverness

on an invisible man’s app, this fashion

relic cannot match the thrill

of reading

a timetable and map

of all those places in between.

 

Ian D. Hall 2017