Night Train
Tall lights beam downwards blanking the night sky
casting long sleeping shadows across the yard.
Darkness edges the mainline. A taxi,
yellow light on, returns over the bridge.
Slow, uncertain shunting starts up. Stops. Rain tries,
Reconsiders. Light speckles. In the trees,
birds, restless, flap and fight. Deep from the hedge
a fox slinks over tracks back into some other dark
void. Silence steadies. A slow release of brakes
screech beyond the lights. Sounds sing and collide deep inside
that shed. A phone rings. Rings. Muffled shouts to where
shadows murmur. Droplets fast run down leaves that shake:
the night train charges past echoing air
into the night into the night into the night
Peter Burrows’ poems have appeared widely. His poem Tracey Lithgow was shortlisted for th e Hedgehog Press 2019 Cupid’s Arrow Poetry Prize, and he was a co-winner in the Hedgehog Press 2019 Tree Poets Nature anthology. peterburrowspoetry.wordpress.com @Peter_Burrows74