This poem is about Darius "The Train Commandeer" McCollum |
Something About Trains NEW YORK – Darius McCollum, 39, was sentenced in April 2005 to three years in prison for his latest commandeering of a train and subsequent joyride. Court records showed this was his 20th incident involving trains or buses, an obsession that has so far caused him to spend about a third of his life behind bars. “I just love trains,” he had told arresting officers. The rhythm of the ride and the smell of black smoke wrinkling the weathered face of the man behind the bullet train. Quicker and tougher than the trains was the engineer, who had to slip behind closed doors and fight to steer this train, his dream. Train songs and transient souls rattle around the rambling memory of the man maneuvering the locomotive. Cold black steel and Marlboro Reds are old, familiar friends to the rough-edged brakemen with all his jailhouse habits. Maybe crossing the continent for the first time, or outruning the bandits who would rob him, or delivering his passengers safely to New Orleans but then he slows into his next station. He exits from the engine room with his hands raised up high He can only run with this addiction - It’s the nature of the train. |