At the Depot
Trains, then silence. Tracks rattle
with expectation and loss. Some
lives emulsified, others condensed.
Scenes from a life not at all like the sea
nor the soft engine steam that billows
black upon black, the sky tearing it apart.
These rails take us where they are going:
predetermined and obstinate. All aboard,
and you’ve escaped like melting snow.
*
Matthew Schultz is the author of two novels: On Coventry and We, The Wanted. His chapbook, Parallax, is forthcoming from 2River this fall, and his prose-poem collection, Icaros, is forthcoming from ELJ Editions in May 2022
