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Trains are not Trains (if you are Jewish) by M. E. Silverman


Every train you see is not a train. Every train is a story. Some seem to shrug and stroll along ready for anything that goes. Others keep their eyes forward but break from the pack the first chance they get. Some scream through the night as if set afire. Another aches and aches. This one is sleek but strong like your mother; that one broods like your father. And look at this one painted for town and that one filled with swaying cattle. But oh, these are always cozy and carry you in their womb. A few even whisper words that tickle your ear and say love love love. Every train you see is not a train. Some are grandmotherly; others are fresh out the station. Some trains take each day at full force while others know the journey is all about possibilities. Others never even get to start. So many trains: how many track back and forth and loop back again? How many never give mind to the cargo packed painfully tight moving through the heavy night? How many chug along past all the town squares that stay silent as untold stories? --- M. E. Silverman had 2 books of poems published and co-edited Bloomsbury’s Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust, and 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium.

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