Arrivals



Proem

Two lightnings struck the earth
At nearly the same time
In nearly the same spot
How strange a display of
Nature
For them not to have merged
Before entering
The earth

Arrivals

The sun was a white disk I could stare at directly. The air was filled with fog, mist, an uncertain drizzle and the sounds of trains. Their screeching, whining, howling, their trembling, shaking and rattling; premonitions of disaster and crashes followed after these impressions, they always did. I hear premises and my mind concludes them. No train on my platform though; just steam, smoke, clouds in my judgement. I took a step forward. There's comfort in certainty; premonitions made true. I took another step forward and felt a sudden grip on my arm, another's hand. There was someone else. Frail anatomy, fragile face. She looked concerned. I knew I was in trance but that didn't end my trance. I moved my other hand towards hers, staring at her. She followed it with her eyes, her expression impossibly complex, conflicted, concerned. My hand was now over hers, but I bided my time, waited for her to meet my eyes, she did, then I gripped her arm and jumped. Fortuna betrayed (betrayed?) me twice but caught me, us, on the third, into the shut teeth of a crushing wall, screeching, whining, howling; trembling, shaking and rattling the train doubled me over and over, devouring me, whirling me through its churned iron, vitrified entrails, angled rotors, labyrinthine insides and outsides. Lights flickered before me; I was reminded of the rain, sparkles to be followed in each rain drop, no sparkles with a sun behind fog, mist, rain, comfort before the heat, absent in this metal stomach of tubed veins pumping boiling steaming blood. Heat embraced me to crush me, light blinding, kaleidoscopic fire. Screeching, whining, howling. Infinite impressions, a single conclusion; a sea of noise but I saw in it a single thought, could only see that single thought, could only think that one thought - to not let her go, not before the earth takes me. Begging to nature, not asking the impossible, knowing your place, requesting only a single boon, a simple plea, a trite finite wish. Not once did my eyes break with hers. Trembling, shaking, rattling. I studied her expression. Impossibly complex, impossible to remember. Lightning struck and seared her from memory. Lethe electric, clapping thunder, the huffing of a motor, white disks that were blinding to stare at. It was night. I got on my bus.