Front Royal: Trout Drug

Look out! (Get ready to wave!)
Here come the buildings,
speeding toward us behind the Trout Drug
Zephyr (obviously a streamliner
with those sleek curves),
trailing a long white puff of steam,
thundering past, huge...

gone, something's gone
(perhaps it's me, always just
passing through small towns
to get to a big city), just
a memory of a blur,
a whole time gone, leaving

these quaint stunned buildings,
just standing there
staring down in disbelief
at the intended motion of a man
on the sidewalk, oblivious
of the angular shadow's slow ascent,

its peak just touching
the corner window's tip as if
to daub at a tear.

Dean Blehert

Last Updated: October 6, 2002