London to Brighton

 London to Brighton 

There’s a life a life, a glimpse of a life 

in a terrace a row where the railway runs 

and weary I wonder and dream of the lives 

for more than a century here 

lining the railway, planting their plots 

a tree grown as tall as the roof 

stories in storeys 

always an ear to the train 

the rumble and roll 

no longer the steam 

rattling over the points. 

The life, the life, in a pattern it runs 

express to the seaside, the airport, the south 

timetables, schedules, circadian rhythms 

the daily the weekly unceasing it flows 

and watching the window, a film all unspooling 

city to seaside, allotments and parks, suburbs and fields 

I dream of the lives all lining the railway 

and out of the pen the black ink is flowing 

disgorging the poem in lines and in  verses 

then into the station, a sigh and a silence 

a full-stop complete at the end of the line. 

April 9th 2025 , London to Brighton train