Abandoned Tracks

I wrote this piece last spring and it came to mind today as I walked an abandoned track near my home. I don’t know about you, but I wish these trains were still running. I’ve seen too many of my students become runaway trains–lost in life or truly lost, and I always wonder, what else can I do to help them stay on track? I try to remember what kept me on track…

Walking the rickety tracks
afternoons swigged
like orange and vodkas,
collecting coins for cigarette machines,
fascinated by foreign things.

We were the only puffs along
that steely path.
Just like weeds
we kept growing in the crevices,
merging our lies,
the unused lines
of broken-down trains.

We were only kids,
in corduroy bell-bottoms
and babydoll tees,
but we fast-tracked
grape concord
tying it to our legs,
skipping school
along with the slates.

Hotboxing happiness,
mostly to misbehave.
It’s amazing we made it anywhere
after walking abandoned tracks.

_{Soul Asylum “Runaway Train”}

25 responses to “Abandoned Tracks”

Jim W.

I haven’t heard that song in a long time…nice words too 😊😊

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Thank you, Jim. Yes, this track has that “it” factor for me.
  
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Tom

This was such a beautiful piece filled with vivid imagery, K! 😊 The loose change, corduroy bell-bottoms and skipping along the tracks – perfect balance of bittersweet nostalgia and wistful regret of the different paths we take ❤

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Thank you for these thoughtful comments, Tom. Those memories seem close on days like today, like a wrinkle in time’s fabric and in a blink I’d be back there again. It was a wild time but one that felt so much lighter than now.💜
  
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abigfatcanofworms

This is lovely. Felt like I was walking with you.

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1. K.Hartless
  
  😊 What a terrific compliment. Thank you.
  
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johnlmalone

beautiful K and haunting; love the metaphor of abandoned tracks, the phrase ‘hotboxing happiness’

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Thank you. Was easy back then that hotboxing . 😊
  
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  1. johnlmalone
    
    I don’t even know what it means but it sounds like fun 🙂
    
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  2. K.Hartless
    
    I forget myself exactly, but I’m sure it’s like riding a bike. 😂
    
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  3. johnlmalone
    
    ah; I might look it up in Urban Dictionary but am afraid what I might find 🙂
    
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Jeff Flesch

I adore the language in this write and the overall feel of it, K. It reminds me of skipping school as a youth, and, well, doing things off the tracks. I appreciate this write. It reminds me to be grateful for all the people that helped me stay on the tracks.

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate you connecting with this piece, and I feel the same. Many of my teachers,actually,really bolstered my self confidence along the way and opened my mind to new ideas of the universe without and within.💜
  
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  1. Jeff Flesch
    
    You’re welcome, K. Always. This is also true for me. I’ve had so many people, past and present, that have guided me, helped shape me, I feel blessed every day. 💜
    
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Michele Marsh

Very emotionally charged poem and the accompanying picture and song really personified your words

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Thank you, Michelle. It would have been easy to have fallen off, so I’m grateful for the grit to keep going and that I didn’t settle in on those abandoned tracks.
  
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  1. Michele Marsh
    
    It certainly would be understandable and human ❤️
    
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  2. K.Hartless
    
    💜
    
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Hobbo

There is something sad and soulful about an abandoned railway track which you capture in this lovely poem.

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Yes, I agree. They’re mostly bike paths here now, which I like, but I do wish the trains still ran. Seems like a sad and silly blunder to have let them go to pot.
  
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  1. Hobbo
    
    Sometimes ‘progress’ goes backwards, doesn’t it.
    
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VJ

Love this! Perfect portrait of our attempts at a misspent youth.

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1. K.Hartless
  
  Thank you kindly, VJ.
  
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writingwhatnots

‘We were the only puffs along
that steely path.’ – there are so many great lines in this poem.❤

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1. K.Hartless
  
  💜 Thank you, kindly. Abandoned tracks do lead somewhere, I guess. Cheers to fresh lines. 💜
  
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