Clackety clack clack

Clackety clack clack

The ship of state rolls on steel wheels

On tracks spiked into timbers

Aged a hundred years.

Shakes and shudders and scream

Clackety clack-clack

Of metal against metal,

Drone of progress wished for

Denied, erased, pretended.

Forward movement unrelenting

Momentum of time only.

Clackety

Clackety

Clack-clack

On wheels of steel

Our ship rolls inebriated, hopeful

By history forsaken, forgotten, re-lived.

Odor of aging axles

Smell of eroded pivot points

Bolts and bearings and pins loosened

Spikes rusted and unreliable

Dirt encrusted hubs and springs and rods

As if you could feel the tension

Of speed and weight and time.

As if you could see it

Pitted and corroded

The joints worn loose

Clackety clack clack

A course spiked in steel and grit

Burnished shining rails of lives lived

Of lives joined

Mostly to be forgotten.

Every trestle shudders

Under its weight

Every curve and bend

Anxiety of derailment, disaster, catastrophe

Vibration inescapable, unending, enduring

Clack

Clackety-clack

Clack

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