04-23-2017, 09:00 AM
The Goods
A train station opens. Books and water
burst from the baggage car like an arcane
ritual for platform 2-B. Locals boycott
the rail service but still the carriages
come in, erupting with cheese and
wild ferrets. Staff strike but the empty
engines are undeterred, loads arrive; pistols,
anchors, chewing gum. Neighbourhood watch
sabotage the line and rip out the buffers
but still the incomings hurtle the bent
metal and plow upside-down through
the polished arches. Soil and off-brand
energy drinks fill the ticket office,
curtain hooks and lenticular artwork
destroy the concessions stand. Soon
the assortium runs miles down the
track, worlds of freight between burning
locomotives. Most residents have sold
at low prices; the town is silent save
the regular crashing of new arrivals.
The remainers make their home in
the railway detritus, lulled to sleep
by the breaking waves of rolling stock
decimating itself on the station shores.
Fountain pens, hangers, goldfish pellets,
warheads, laminate flooring, orphans,
sunrise, crocs. Boxsets, five irons,
crampons, condoms, horse hair,
paper, nun-chucks; the goods.
A train station opens. Books and water
burst from the baggage car like an arcane
ritual for platform 2-B. Locals boycott
the rail service but still the carriages
come in, erupting with cheese and
wild ferrets. Staff strike but the empty
engines are undeterred, loads arrive; pistols,
anchors, chewing gum. Neighbourhood watch
sabotage the line and rip out the buffers
but still the incomings hurtle the bent
metal and plow upside-down through
the polished arches. Soil and off-brand
energy drinks fill the ticket office,
curtain hooks and lenticular artwork
destroy the concessions stand. Soon
the assortium runs miles down the
track, worlds of freight between burning
locomotives. Most residents have sold
at low prices; the town is silent save
the regular crashing of new arrivals.
The remainers make their home in
the railway detritus, lulled to sleep
by the breaking waves of rolling stock
decimating itself on the station shores.
Fountain pens, hangers, goldfish pellets,
warheads, laminate flooring, orphans,
sunrise, crocs. Boxsets, five irons,
crampons, condoms, horse hair,
paper, nun-chucks; the goods.