your life is a
poem on a train
the train’s station is
christened utopia and
the cars sing and
leap and gently sway
in your honor and
the rows of platforms
appear fully self actualized
and look like the
platforms from harry potter
only less british with
wider halls and marble
instead of common brick
the train is obsidian
and sleek with a
midnight blue shell lacquered
to shimmer like a
dragonfly’s wings hovering above
a kindly precious ancient
beetle only seeming to
move as slowly as
life to the innocent
ones or your favorite
memory laughing with friends
inside the train’s cars
smell vaguely of lilac
in the day and
cinnamon at night like
a person who is
truthful on the inside
and the outside but
still tries hard helping
everyone anyway and there
is a cat car
and there is an
aquarium car and a
lounge car where the
cats spend a great deal
of time plotting the
overthrow of the aquarium
car’s defenses and everyone
is happy and everyone
is drunk on poetry
in motion and high
on love remember please
your life is a
poem on a train
Paul’s latest book, “After Working Hours” was published in July of 2017 from NightBallet Press. He hosts Pandora’s Box Poetry Showcase at Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, Texas. His chapbook, Reject Convention, was published by Kleft Jaw Press 2015 and his poems have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies since 1985. Richard Bailey’s film, “One Of The Rough” contains several of Paul’s poems and was shown at The Berlin Experimental Film Festival in December of 2016. He was chosen for the Ashbery Home School Residency in Hudson, New York. He and Reverie Evolving currently facilitate a Stone Soup Poetry workshop for The Writer’s Garrett of Dallas.