ROCKDALE STATION 1955

After Thomas Hardy
‘Faintheart in a Railway Train’

The carriage lined with panels
of my own youthful timidity
and now to find all that is left
is the grit of brake dust
and specked bitumen
on the station steps
by which she ascended
out of my life
but not before tossing rearward
an image of brown eyes and hair
a sideways come-on look
and a mocking half-challenge.


Spindrift, 1999

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