LISBON TRAIN

Train chatter along smooth tracks
glide
A man spits morning 
on the station platform
Plastic ribbons of 
red + white
stream Christmas
Portuguese style
#8 to Lisbon
seats 
55 + 57
Whooping cough kid–
smell of dirty diaper
Cigarette tongues fill cargo with 
smoke scents
familiar + comforting
Warm sun flickers in trees as 
train rides landscapes
Winter brown crops sleep
White horses pasture
abandoned crumbles of memories pass
town after town after town
Radiohead in my ears
soundtrack of my life
remembered
you are all I need
Orange trees + farmed greens
Clothes hang in dawn’s chill 
M spray-painted on white walls
Kids walk with backpacks
laughing
River run through town
and a dog barks 
in a warehouse parking lot
Orange and olive trees like 
statues 
stand in green fields
A girl leans forward in her chair to talk to a friend
A man talks business on his cellphone
My lover listens to music with his eyes closed
Telephone poles run the railroad tracks
A bridge is painted in bright blue
Terraced houses sit 
in silence
terracotta-roofed
An elderly woman with glasses sleeps
with her mouth open
Fir trees and eucalyptus cascade down hilltops
and the whooping cough kid sounds again
Cross tipped church steeple
Ring tone
da da de de da da
Ola
the girl answers
A couple flirt
as the woman flips her hair back from her eyes
My lover crosses his fingers 
and his thumbs touch
The old woman’s arm falls from the armrest 
of the chair
as she goes deeper into sleep
her foot out in the isle
The train slows– 
the next station
My lover scratches 
his face + his nose
A man gets up to exit the train
Fatima
139
A new passenger boards
A man’s butt hits my shoulder as he passes
The man I thought was exiting the train
returns 
and takes his seat again
Cell towers on hilltops
A girl plays with the split ends of her hair
her brown hair
disgusted she looks
A man reads the newspaper
The old woman crosses her arms
The sun hits my lover’s face 
as he stares out the window
The green window curtain
shakes + sways
with the movement of the speeding train
The man turns the newspaper
and rustles the pages
A girl blows her nose with 
a white tissue
holding with red-tipped fingernails
The train passes through a stone tunnel
my ears pop
I’m thirsty and my teeth are dry
The mirror lining the ceiling reflects
seated passengers
sitting + sleeping + reading
A girl puts her hair behind her ear 
and smiles
The little cougher cacks again
with a tune
cack  cack  cack
Planes cover sky 
with clouds from trailing streams
Train 
windows shutter
passing by our window
heading home–
startling my lover
A woman rubs 
the bald head of her husband
just like I like to do
Stripped naked cork trees
red
they stand
Urine stench 
from the lou
sticks in my nostrils
Hot in the train car
we take off our coats
as we shift from 
side to side
the train moves 
swiftly
A man coughs loudly with a gruff
A dad walks hand in hand 
with his young son down the aisle
smiling
And my lover holds
my hand
The man gets up again to exit at the next stop
shaking the hand of the man with the newspaper
as he departs 
Chow he says
As Nick Drake sings
Oh poor boy
Where will he stay tonight?
And a woman with a white fur coat
and a white handbag–matching
boards the train
Dried octopus fallen tree branches
on landscape
A man blows his nose 
long + slow
with short snorts
I place my hand on my lover’s hand
Cows corralled among castle ruins
graveyard of 
stone + crosses

By KM Sharp