Jason Irwin: The Child and the Train

Late night, no moon.

In the distance a train cries

like a whippoorwill,

and a child, in his bed,

sick with fever, wakens

from dreams of far off places.

In the next room

his mother murmurs a decade

on the rosary she holds

in swollen hands;

a pile of laundry at her feet;

an ashtray overflowing

with stumps of cigarettes. 

As the train passes into the hills,

an orchestra of crickets

resumes its lullaby.

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Copyright 2016. From A Blister of Stars by Jason Irwin. Published by Low Ghost Press.