Train of Thought

They told me things That left me on memory's wings Long ago ... When I write I show The white eye of the page Things that my own heart caged. The almond like a miser With its nut, the sun like a fire Stoking my gut, The journey that dawn my history Snatched from unmuddled memory The child playing alone Pounding stone on stone His only friend was solitude And that shaping of him Is my sum, span and latitude ... To break the shell of wooden bone And move the kernel From its throne, To the disgust of the sun Roasting me Till I was over done My brother's hands took me out And served me to my father's eye So to grandmother I was en route But I did not cry Though things were sailing by The world moving backwards Leaving the sky Cradled on my eye. My mother's heart was snatched that day It was my fault to play ... A child at one needs a protecting eye. It was my first train ride And the only train I did not break It was more than a toy And too big for the sensibility of a boy. The thing just swallowed up my pride But I not quake For I who defeated the sun Would let my father see his son Bravely longing To return to solitude and fun, I have watched carefully My solitude when now I play, ruefully.