Only Yesterday (Sometimes I Forget)

 

Shovelling the coal inside the firebox
Hot sun, white light
Red and yellow snaking flames
On the footplate
Grimy fireman, flat cap
Salt and pepper hair.  Furrowed craggy face
A hissing plume of steam darts across the cab
He pulls the cord, the whistle shrieks
I am on my way
Ch    ch   ch  ch   ch   ch  ch  ch  ch
Dense grey clouds of smoke
ch  ch chch  ch  ch  ch chch ch chchch chchch         
Fill the space
Above the tender and the carriages 

I, still, on the rough hessian seat
Going backwards.  Look…
A startled rabbit
The horses staring, motionless.
A white and wavy trail of steam
Disappearing against the blue sky

In the distance a tiny stone church
Closer, a lake, lush reeds, a bridge,
A  hillside rutted path 

I remember going to the shop
Holding mama’s hand
Lone Star 000 steam engine train set
I got it for my birthday!

My tiny miniature railway
Laid across the lino floor 

I’d drawn my world, the roads
The shops and houses
Cars, level crossing and station
Multicoloured painted
Plastic people standing there

 Now I was the engine driver

Taking ma and pa
Brothers and sisters
In cream & brown slam door carriages
To the countryside on a great adventure 

Tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleat tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut tuddleatut

 

©Christopher 2017/2020  
compilation [email protected]  

 

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