Saturday Exploration

We set out on a Saturday,
miniature Magellans circumnavigating
around strict neighborhood boundaries
out to where the train tracks dipped under the overpasses,
to where grown-ups were just echoes.

We read spray-painted words colorfully
free from the rules of our fathers
and scuffed our soles on broken glass and gravel
placing pennies on the rail;
their petrified faces staring sideways down the tracks.
I wondered if they they knew what was coming.

And then we walked the rail
chucking stones, breaking bottles, cracking jokes--
but really just waiting. All day long
to see if we really could derail a train
with a few coins and a bit of childhood wonder.

Afterwards, when that heavy engine had rumbled by undeterred,
we collected our little copper sacrifices curiously
and saw how the train had flattened their familiar old faces
back into anonymity. Free of E Pluribus Unum and stamped-on LIBERTY,
we shoved them in our pockets and headed home for dinner
feeling strangely triumphant, like conquistadors.


-2007