Title: Train Talk
Fandom: Original
Challenge: Gossip
Other prompt: on the train
Rating: G
Length: 140
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Thanks go to Zhie, Morgynleri & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: Do the rail cars gossip in the yard?



Do the rail cars gossip in the yard?
Comment on the spray paint livery of freight cars, the vigor of the engines?

Do the sleepers and the superliners,
sundry kinds of coaches, cars, compartments
share stories of the passengers, the crew,
Share the sense of warding sleep and wakefulness
The confidence of couplings holding this linear world together, running, racing along the rails
Converging at the horizon fore and aft?

What tales do engines tell of engineers
Baggage cars of baggage & those who handle same?
What railyards are the best for dancing through
Which require cleverness or caution,
Good timing or good luck, the ones
Where endurance only will safely see you thread
The endless sidings, points and mazy passages

The rails themselves sing songs
Traveling through space and time and tunnels
A romance rich with history, velocity, and love.