Journeyman

Spine-tinging railway sleepers
Sleepy houses lying four-square and firm
Orange beams devide the darkness
Rumbling fit to turn the waking warm.
Sliding through Victorian tunnels
where green moss oozes from the pores.
Dull echoes from the wet embankments ***
Battlefield allotments. Fresh open sores.

In late night commuter madness
Double-locked black briefcase on the floor
like a faithfull dog with master
sleeping in thn draught beside the carriage door.
To each Journeyman his own home-coming
Cold supper nearing with each station stop
Frostly flaked on empty platforms
Fireside slippers waiting - Flip. Flop.

Journeyman night-tripping on the late fantastic
Too late to stop for tea at Gerrards Cross
and hear the soft choes on the footbridge shuffle
as the wheels turn bitting on the midnight frost.
On the late commuter special
Carriage lights that flicker, fade and die
Howling into hollow blackness
Duscy diesel shudders in full cry
Down redundant morning papers
Abandon crosswords with a cough.
Stationmaster in his wisdom
told the guard to turn the heating off.


SIDE TWO