Two parallel lines
Recede behind my train and
converge into one.
Recede behind my train and
converge into one.
How banal. But I love watching out the front or back of the train, being mesmerized as the tracks go by. It's rare these days to get to watch out the front; they've got the engineer boxed into his* private compartment and unless he's breaking the rules by leaving the door open, we can't look out. So the end car, the erstwhile caboose, offers a more consistent view, and a more wistful one: where we've been, not where we're going. It also offers, on straight track, a perfect illustration of the powers of perspective. The parallel tracks appear closer and closer together, until they might as well be one.
*Always male - I think I've never seen a female engineer on one of my commuter trains. Conductors, yes - but not the engineers.
You know what...I never see female engineers either...what's up with that?
ReplyDeleteMaybe that is what my job shall be. An engineer on the train.
ReplyDeleteNot banal at all -- lovely and, yes wistful. (My haiku today was about breakfast.)
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me think of the Kingsolver novel, is it Animal Dreams? Her love affair with a train engineer?
ReplyDeleteI miss riding trains. There is something so soothing about the sound. And my most used commuter line had its own smell (NOT like a subway).
ReplyDeleteIn Toronto I saw lady engineers fairly often.
Up here the only trains that run are the old fashioned across the country ones. Very few passenger trains to be had and you'd have to drive somewhere to get on one. Someday...
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see those converging lines.
Interesting point. Wonder why there aren't any women engineers?
ReplyDeleteI've seen female engineers in the subway trains.
ReplyDeleteFA
I couldn't tell you the difference between a conductor and an engineer if my life depended on it. Mass transit? Not so much here. But I do love the sound of a train.
ReplyDeleteI know a female engineer on MetroNorth.
ReplyDelete