Poem of the Week

The 9 AM train

By : Apu Mondal

I begin to believe

In the train and clock

Even before it is nine,

Moonlight someday

Moonless sometimes

Clouds will return

As fog or rain

Just as my train

A whistle from afar

A system made real

Thought distilled into

Compartments

And alighting people

Saints come home

With the last available

Ferry.

The river flows again.

Analysis by Peter Green : “The 9 AM train” is an optimistic epiphany about the journey of life. It celebrates the normality of life with a train "...alighting people ''- often "Saints" in the poet's estimation. The last line echoes Bruce Springsteen's observation in "Land of Hope and Dreams" that people's "dreams will not be thwarted".