Say that Two Trains Pass Going Opposite Ways

in the night / now we're being metaphorical here but 

let's say they have a brief chat in the seconds

before the night flings them leagues away from one another

and say it goes something like this: the first train

asks the second where are you headed

and the second chuckles (I am quite aware that trains

can't really chuckle / just bear with me) and replies

I am headed to where the grass is green and

love is sincere how about you / and the first train

baffled / fumbles for words (this to be clear not on account

of its being a train and therefore lacking

even the vaguest form of sentience 

but rather assuming (for the sake of this parable) that

it has capabilities of discourse and thought

roughly equal to those of the average

middle-class American college graduate) and answers 

after a time / something along the lines of ...just old New York City...

I guess... and then just like that the trains are split

by a boundless night / and the first train hums to itself 

some Simon and Garfunkel or you know anything folksy I guess

maybe some Bob Dylan and it thinks on the other train's words

now say the next night these two trains pass again

(going opposite ways from the night previous)

and the first train shouts to the second

(over the roaring of hydraulics and the hiss of steam I suppose 

if we're trying to be realistic)

did you find it / did I find what replies the second / quite puzzled

well did you find the land where the grass is green

and love is sincere / and the second can't help but laugh

a great deep-bellied steam engine laugh 

and says oh no but I am heading there today

and the first train lets out a little puff of steam in surprise

you mean...New York...it replies well I was just there yesterday

well sure why not the second answers / winking its headlight

mysteriously / and as the night throws them a hundred miles apart 

the moon swallows all their words / and the first train

cannot help but feel incredibly lonesome

I wish I could have gotten to know that

old steamer better it thinks and wonders

why can't we ever stop moving forward there's a whole world 

of folks we have loads in common with but we're always 

passing them by until one day we can't go any further

and it looks around at the little cars 

heading out in their directions under the glittering skyscrapers

and the little people passing in the street carrying briefcases

and he wonders where is the man with all the levers and the coal

where's the man who is making us all move along

I'd like to kill the bastard / but it's just a brief thought

and soon our little train is thinking about how rusty it's feeling

and how it can't be doing these cross-country trips

for too much longer and then soon he is swallowed by the dawn

and that is where we'll leave our little train

heading off into the daybreak none the better none the worse

thank you for your time that probably seemed silly

and yes maybe it was pointless since as everyone knows

trains can't talk or think so I suppose just make of it what you will

anyway that's all / I have a dinner appointment with some

colleagues and I guess I should be on my way

it was nice hearing about your life

shame we hadn't a little more time