The Lonely Station

Automat - Edward Hopper, c.1927

Again, it was only me who couldn't sleep,
Illuminated by the subdued hue of the television lights,
Financial market reports and natural disasters,
In places I'll never go,
And to people I'll never meet.

It meant nothing to me,
If infant mortality rates had fallen,
Or that the pound was bearing up against the euro,
Because I knew that some things change,
And some things don't change.

Because I knew that trains were passing by at night,
And out there somewhere so were you,
Heading to the sixth station,
For the final time.

There'll be no flashing lights,
No neon stained rain,
No glamour,
No imagery...

I won't walk out of the mist,
Or into the night;
Fade to black...
Cut to white.

There'll be no emotive underscoring,
Or heart wrenching violin crescendo,
Just a mumbled goodbye,
And a fumbled indiscretion,
Feeling in the dark.

In an undertone you told me that,
"My world moves because you do",
And I retorted,
"But the stars still shine regardless".

It was the sort of bleak imagery given beauty by your eyes,
And it was the kind of hollow rhetoric that I so despised in myself.

But stock markets crash,
And empires crumble,
And still your train rumbles
On through that long night,
I really hope it crashes,
I really hoped it might.