~the Train Was Coming~ Poem by Mary Nagy

As I lie in bed tonight I hear the train whistle blow.
We've lived near these tracks for about 12 years now so
I am stricken numb when memories start flooding my head.


She came back to the house to tell us she left him on the tracks.
''Your dad was too drunk and stupid to get off the tracks so I left him! ''
She had been his girlfriend for almost 2 years now
and was even more of a drinker than he was...
a manic-depressed alcoholic in full swing.
The fact that she was only 8 years older than me didn't help either.

But, her drunken urgency seemed sincere and put us into a state of panick.
We knew we had to find him quickly and as dark as it was,
that would be difficult.
The brand new camaro in the driveway was useless......
too many DUI's left it permanantly parked as a reminder of another ''fun'' night.

So we walked...and prayed.

Sure enough, we heard the sound we dreaded most.
THE TRAIN WAS COMING.
We could only pray he had moved off the tracks in time
or that some good samaritan seen him and took pity on him.
There was no way of knowing...
we just kept walking, looking, and praying.

When we had scoured the area where she assured us she left him
we grew more and more worried because there was no sign of him.
The darkness made it impossible to see down the sides of the tracks
where the ditches were deep enough to cause a drunken stumble.

We weren't sure if we should be looking for a man passed out
or pieces of a man hit by a train.
We also weren't sure what shape either would be in if we found it.

After what must've been hours of searching.......
we faced the facts with tear stained cheeks
that we couldn't find him.
Almost as an afterthought, we passed the bar in town on our walk home
and decided to peek in (maybe somebody had seen him) .

There he was
having the time of his life...drunk as could be, hitting on the waitress
(who was only too glad to see us arrive and take him home!)
We told him about our search the next day.
Out of anger he told us we were ignorant and shouldn't worry about him...

I'm sure he didn't realize what an impossible request that was.