There Was a Time

There was a time
I don’t know, I suppose long ago
When I took the train to see you in the outskirts of the city
And from out of the gray
Disjointed sprawl of life,
You formed in station lights.
Past black and white
nooks and crannies
Framed in trash along the tracks
In the world’s singular course,
Of all the hammers, all the ties,
The earth piercing nails
Laid by dead hands of men
Whose sweat filled the communion
Of your light
As you waited
Under the crooked streetlamp