A Suicide By Train

-A Suicide By Train-
by Keaton Foster



Often
I called you
Klutz
Some boys
Others
Called you
A slut
Never
Did I judge
How could I
Why should I
The same changes
You faced
So did we all
But despite
And regardless of
Those changes
You and I
Remained
Just friends
Damn near
The very best
I trusted you
You trusted me
Each other’s
Darkest secrets
Did we keep
Back then
When we
You and I
Were just kids
We use to walk
Along the line
Down the tracks
All the way to school
It was a few miles
Of what you
Like to say was
Putting our lives
At a greater risk
Feeling alive
By fearing death
And the “what if?”
We’d sing songs
Expressing our own
Ideas of what
Each verse meant
We’d tell stories of life
And share fantasies
Of our ultimate escape
From elementary
Through middle
And past high
We walked those tracks
Talking about life
Or in many ways
A lack thereof
You wanted to leave
Head out of town
You wanted freedom
From the ideas
And expectations
Of your family
You wanted your
Own way in this world
I myself couldn’t go
But more
Than anything
I wanted you to
Little were your options
Your mother
Your father
Controlling
Brooding
Always plotting
Against you
Against your choices
Barefoot and pregnant
By age eighteen
Married off
To another family
Of pomp
And circumstance
Born to create
Allegiances
As your father
Would often say
What a bastard
What a piece of work
I hated him
Almost as much as you did
Your mother
Was in agreement
Via her silence
She only knew
What he said
Sad excuse
That is why
When today I read
That a local woman
Rebecca Dunham
Was tragically
And accidentally
Killed by train
Walking along the tracks
As expressed by the engineer
Never once looking back
I know and understand
That it was not
An accidental death
But rather
A suicide by train…


A Suicide By Train
Written by Keaton Foster Copyright © 2015.
I changed the girls name, and it was never classified as a suicide,
but knowing her and her ideas, I'm confident it was. RIP