Seaside Special
by cricketjeff on July 13, 2020. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
Starting slowly from the station on a city Saturday,
You can hear the engine straining as it strives to pull away –
First the driver must be careful not to let the wheels slip
There’s five hundred eager faces looking forward to the trip.
But as we start going faster you can feel the change of mood;
Though it’s early in the morning time to start on lunchtime’s food.
Now we are passing the chimneys and houses,
Leaving behind all our workaday grouses.
Picking up pace on the way to the sea
On warm summer days that’s the one place to be.
Cows on the left and there’s sheep on our right
Faster and faster the coaches take flight.
The children are laughing their parents despair
As a cloud of white steam paints our path through the air.
It seems like forever but soon comes the sound
Of the whistle that says that our aim has been found.
And now slowly we are slowing and the engine’s rhythm’s changed
So the bags that we’ve been raiding must be swiftly rearranged.
There’s a clatter from below us as we roll across the points,
And the rolling stock’s now singing of its swiftly ageing joints.
Here’s the platform of the station of the town beside the sea
And the doors are banging open
people leaving
“WAIT
FOR ME!!!”
Author notes
It’s a steam, train of course circa 1955 heading to the South Coast of England
for a day as far away from life as it is possible to bet.
English