what do you think when you see a train
do you compare how long it is
and it’s speed
to how far it is from you

do you then try to estimate
if you could catch it
if you ran your hardest

if you put your hands on the rusted steel
and pulled yourself up
and sat amongst the cargo and craits

and listen to the clacking metal beneath you
and feel the cool night air.

when do you think it would next stop?
  two or three states away?

in some place you have never been
where they’re are people you have never met

you could do this
your feet pounding as the scrub brush pulls on your pant legs
the passing cars getting nearer and nearer
and then your hands on the edge of one of the cars
and then you pulling yourself up onto one of them
and then you in some far away train yard
in some distant city

and if you did this
you wouldn’t even have to be you