The Railroad

Manet

Steam and sounds

of iron clanking and screeching

fill the air.

It’s busy and they sit

on the edge of the

Railroad yard.

The little girl excitedly looks

through the fence and steam

and watches the people and trains

hustle about.

The girl likes the trains but the mother doesn’t.

She is scared of the big belching monsters

And instead looks pessimistically

down the street,

the book and sleeping dog

lay forgotten in her lap.

She is, perhaps waiting for someone

from her past.

The girl looks eagerly

to the future

but the mother doesn’t want to leave the past.

Later, they’ll go home

the girl will be on the

floor, playing with her train

and dreaming of the future.

But she’ll sit in a chair by the window;

the puppy has escaped from her

melancholy haze

and plays with the girl.

But the book is still forgotten on her lap as