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Train Dreams

why the chicken can't eat only eggs.

By Richard Patrick GagePublished 2 months ago Updated 2 months ago 1 min read

Before you try to drive the thing,

be a passenger.

🚉

Sit with your forehead on the cool glass,

let other people’s sentences

rattle through your bones

the way the tracks hum under the car.

🚉

Every writer you love

was once just a kid

dog-earring pages on the late train,

mouth moving on the quiet parts,

letting somebody else’s story

beat their own heart for a while.

🚉

The line only runs

as long as the seats stay full.

A lonely route gets cut from the schedule,Before you try to drive the thing,

be a passenger.

🚉

Sit with your forehead on the cool glass,

let other people’s sentences

rattle through your bones

the way the tracks hum under the car.

🚉

Every writer you love

was once just a kid

dog-earring pages on the late train,

mouth moving on the quiet parts,

letting somebody else’s story

beat their own heart for a while.

🚉

The line only runs

as long as the seats stay full.

A lonely route gets cut from the schedule,

rust creeps into the switches,

the last engine sighs into a siding

and never comes back.

🚉

If you want to be a herald of the craft,

start as its loudest fan.

Buy the ticket.

Ride every weather, every season.

Let ten borrowed words

walk through your head

for every one you send out into the dark.

🚉

Call it practice.

Call it respect.

Call it how you keep the line alive

so when your own small train

finally rounds the bend—

lights on, brakes soft-whistling— ✨

there’s still a station lit up,

people waiting,

in no hurry to arrive.

For FunGratitudehow toinspirationalsocial commentaryvintage

About the Creator

Richard Patrick Gage

I'm an author and publisher of poem anthology group from northern Ontario, I like enabling other voices and new writers. I'm also a novel writer, known for the indie darling Noetic Gravity that came out in June 2025. Here I write for me.

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Comments (1)

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  • Treathyl Fox (aka cmoneyspinner)2 months ago

    I never got to ride on a “real train” (like Amtrak). LOL. But everything you described is what I did on a subway train. Red line: Maryland to D.C. for 8 years. I was never in a hurry to get to work.

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