Helltrain
"I ride on the mailtrain, baby /can't buy a thrill..." ~Bob Dylan
You can buy a ticket
but you can't buy a thrill.
It's all 'be in at the kill,'
but the victim don't pick it.
You can tell them to stick it
(and they certainly will.)
On the overground pale-way
the fare's taken in souls.
The dead-wagon rolls
to the market each sale day,
but ratbags on the trail may
soon eat the controls.
Still, the circus tent's pie-warm,
and the clown car's on Uber
(tho the Clown's in a stupor
from some three a.m. tweetstorm.)
Cassandra's on cable in fine form
til the noosers come loop her.
You can buy a ticket, you all,
but you can't stop the train,
and you can't towel off the hard rain
that's been brought here to fall.
~January 2018
written for Shay's Tickets, at real toads
ratbag: Victorian slang for (*cough*) 'a despicable person'
Optional Musical Accompaniment
Images: American Train, © Hiro Yamagata, All Rights Reserved. Fair Use
Rabbit on a Train, © Michael Sowa, All Rights Reserved Fair Use.
Rabbit on a Train, © Michael Sowa, All Rights Reserved Fair Use.
