Trainings Poem by Lonnie Hicks

We stood on the platform
we two
vowing each
to ride to board our mutual future
side by side
rails stretching miles
years ahead
headbands, smiles and hands held
not understanding then
that each of us
was too
agreeing to be trained
to club car mutuality

each car a stage
in our lives
couplings
track switches
hoping we’d endure.

Scenery familiar and unfamiliar
pass by
hopes
swifting moving dreams

tears, stains and smiles
and similes;
understandings
misunderstandings
sometimes taking different tracks
wandering off
yet coming back
we journeyed
autumns, summers and springs
stations and station houses
platform greetings and goodbyes
comings and goings
yet still
trains and trainings
got us by,
hands held
separations and goodbyes
could not change our history
which we carry
with us in that duffel
bag
we call our past.