Enquiries at Swanwick Station

Enquiries at Swanwick Station

'You've been here some years now.
I remember your hair dark,
how you were a younger man'.

'I've become rooted I suppose,
manured in by a steady wage,
that and just a mile from home,
handy to see the children grow,
plant and water shoots
blossomed now away
mulching makeshift gardens of their own.
And you've changed too no doubt,
although I cannot place,
among the many passing here, your face'.

'Well, I only travel
twice a year and sometimes
less than that, according
to the flow of things,
how much I need to get away
and other small dependencies.

So what time do I get to Milton Keynes'?

When the stars fall and more
grey dust is scattered here
among the platform-edge high ferns.