passed tense

  passed tense 

take the railroad track

foot after foot upon sleeper 

upon frosty sleeper

underfoot understand

  passed the staccato 

of the wagon works

manned by the likely lads

sworn in spit

  passed engine sheds

steamed in oil rags

and blue dungarees 

turntabled in childhood

  passed the signal box

boyed in signal dreams 

the siding’s points slewed

by the long-ironed levers

  passed the frogspawn 

spotted kids with their

jam jars and hopes for

grass snakes in trepidation

of bravado’s flaring eyes

  passed the joiners works

all sawdust and shavings

so clean upon the pine air

and the mortise and tenon 

of childhood and sweethearts 

  passed six pit junction

the biro-smudged train spotting books

the bottomless pit where

stones never arrived

at their expectation 

  past tense

passed tense those wings on heels

flying flying flying

and never landing on the future

that remains fixed in the past

  passed time

    itself passed time itself