©1998-1999, Richard J. Yanco
(From the train between Bologna and Milan, second class.)
Opposite me two
Germans sweat and snore.
One of them wakes,
and spits, and sleeps again.
Through
sullen swirling gloom we jolt and roar.
We have been here
for ever: even yet
A
dim watch tells two hours, two æons, more.
The windows are
tight-shut and slimy-wet
With
a night's foetor. There are two hours more;
Two hours to dawn
and Milan; two hours yet.
Opposite me two
Germans sweat and snore. . . .
The
darkness shivers. A wan light through the rain
Strikes on our
faces, drawn and white. Somewhere
A
new day sprawls; and, inside, the foul air
Is chill, and damp,
and fouler than before. . . .
Opposite me two
Germans sweat and snore.
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