A TRAIN POEM

If you do not want anybody
to sit next to
you on the train,
make sure you have worked
your back out
and your T-shirt clings
to your armpits
in dark
bunches. Put your bag
under the seat.
Leave the seat by free
as a threatening gesture.
A man and his daughter with chips.
Change seats.
The daughter does not like the chips.
Now you are
sitting next to the moon
going to Swine Town.
Opposite, the father
is raising safeguarding concerns
and bitching about Nanan.

LANCASHRING

for BC

Riding out of the ice crevassed rock.

Horwich, Buckshaw, Lostock Parkway

Every station stop is business.

Buckshaw, Lostock, Horwich Parkway

Midnight misting across like hail.

Lostock, Horwich, Buckshaw Parkway

My hands were lost in a mobile's light.

Horwich, Lostock, Buckshaw Parkway

Headlit motels at a taxi's halt.

Buckshaw, Horwich, Lostock Parkway

Fox eyes stared from a terrace window.

Lostock, Buckshaw, Howich Parkway

Railways unspooling from under wheels

Edale, Chinley, Grindleford, Hope