on the train into sunset
my history is so brittle
ephemeral and fleeting

abandoned power lines
stand forgotten marching
forlornly along the tracks

old splintered poles tired from
half a century have dropped their
wire burdens into the underbrush

my eyes don’t focus like they used
to so I lean back like these poles
trying to see the details

afraid to touch the cable around
my ankles although I know
the charge is long gone

     (First published in The Legendary, 2009)