Willie—

 by Melissa Watkins Starr
 
Trains were 
never part of me
I knew their sound
breathy augmented
sixth chords searing
my heart

Like God
trains speak things
into existence,  
events forgotten,
buried, but not asleep
 
Please go— 
you frighten me 
 
like the low grain
rumble 
beneath the clatter
that shakes 
the house
’til the train
is gone