Terminates Here

Leaf 294 – Homeward Bound

 

Metropolitan Line A-Stock Train (Amersham Museum)

Smells and sounds are often the unexpected evocative echoes of the past. Growing up in the outer suburbs of northwest London, the Metropolitan Line was our lifeline into the city. This poem is an attempt to capture an aural recollection of what it was like arriving at Baker Street Station, either en route to work or heading out for a night on the town amid the bright lights of the West End. It was written as a nostalgic response to returning to Baker Street after many years away, the sounds and scents of the place instantly transcending time.

 

 

THIS TRAIN TERMINATES HERE

 

Silver carriages

kinking to the curve –

whispering, pneumatic kisses.

 

Echoing

along the platform,

a sharp screech –

rumbling out into

long rattles and clanks.

 

Easing into

a Baker Street siding,

doors sliding into a sigh.

 

 

 

 

Ron Embleton - Travelling to Work (Story of Newspapers, 1968)