{"id":1719,"date":"2009-05-28T17:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=1719"},"modified":"2009-05-28T17:02:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T17:02:00","slug":"jayne-dunsmuir-is-riding-the-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/jayne-dunsmuir-is-riding-the-trains\/","title":{"rendered":"Jayne Dunsmuir is riding the trains"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Benefits of Train Travel<\/span>


When something tells you<\/span>
You need a vacation <\/span>
Take a train across country<\/span>

Forget the planes<\/span>
Leading to comic-strip beaches<\/span>
Why would you dig in the hot sand<\/span>
 <\/span>
Why would you allow yourself<\/span>
To get stranded <\/span>
Between the land and the water<\/span>

When you could sit quietly<\/span>
In the smoking car<\/span>
Drinking the beer someone passes  <\/span>

With the sound of the bones<\/span>
Of the irrefutable engine<\/span>
Flattening a rail<\/span>

That may as well have been put there<\/span>
For you alone<\/span>
The consolation of certainty<\/span>

That comes from having no say<\/span>
The choices were made in some past<\/span>
When men rode horses along the track<\/span>

Drew your route on parchment<\/span>
Decided \u2018this way\u2019 <\/span>
Felled trees, dug mountains<\/span>

Wrestled with obstacles<\/span>
On your behalf<\/span>
You ride the fervour of their certainty<\/span>

And later, with a book in your hand<\/span>
Look out to the vast various scene<\/span>
Unravelling for your pleasure<\/span>

You feel your heart mauled by <\/span>
Everything you see because<\/span>
It is momentary and unknowable<\/span>

And what better than to suffer<\/span>
Just a little in the comfort of the carriage <\/span>
Where you witness<\/span>

The door of the trackside diner<\/span>
Opening to the hand of a woman<\/span>
With long black hair<\/span>

Holding coffee, a paper bag<\/span>
Sees you watching from the <\/span>
Window of the passing train<\/span>

Thinks something of you<\/span>
Perhaps nothing<\/span>
And is gone before you give a name to it.<\/span>


* Jayne Dunsmuir is a photographer living in New York. <\/span>

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Benefits of Train TravelWhen something tells youYou need a vacation Take a train across countryForget the planesLeading to comic-strip beachesWhy would you dig in the hot sand Why would you allow yourselfTo get stranded Between the land and the waterWhen you could sit quietlyIn the smoking carDrinking the beer someone passes  With the sound of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}