The Train To Edinburgh
by Susan Reid
At first we all stood,
held upright by our bags,
working to not lean
on strangers,
packed too tightly to truly succeed.
As the countryside whipped by backwards,
we grabbed the metal hand holds on the curves
and wondered
how our feet and backs would hold up.
We distracted ourselves
with pleasantries
“Where are you from?”
“What have you been doing here?”
“Where will you be going next?”
That slim, sympathetic slice
gave room
for each of us to find more comfortable spots
to lean, or sit on our bags,
The young men traveling together
from Canada, England and Texas
shared tic-tacs for lunch,
and saw to it
that a seat went to a passenger
who had been standing longest
At each stop
hopeful passengers looked in and turned away
Unless they were willing
to stand.
Rumor had it
there would be no more trains until
tomorrow.
So a couple joined us
and were wedged in
There was camaraderie
and generosity
In our discomfort,
and some humor
as we watched the unsteady
beer drinking
bachelorette party
trickle unsteadily through
to the loo,
tide in-tide out.
We saw midriffs, belt buckles,
the same tee shirt
same shorts
again and again.
When the ride ended, we were glad.
but we will never forget
the sway of the train
leaning us all
Into one another
for a time.
Rhyming Wordle
[Am I the only person in the world who is annoyed by people who tell me how many tries it took them to complete today’s Wordle? And this is a stoopid poem that sounds like it was written by an ape. SB SM]
You can’t rhyme Wordle with an “i”
unless you wear a girdle.
You can’t rhyme Wordle with a “u”
unless you jump a hurdle.
You can’t spell Wordle with a “y”
unless you’re Larry Byrdle.
If you rhyme Wordle with an “e”
then you’re a Wordle Nerdle.
You can’t rhyme Wordle with an “a”
‘cuz “Fardle’s” not a wordle.
You could try it anyway,
but that would be absurdle.
Silverback Bill (Hinesburg SBs) is always good for a few well-chosen words:
penetralia
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
plural noun: The innermost, secret, or hidden parts of something.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin penetralia, from penetrare (to penetrate), from penitus (interior) + intrare (to enter). Earliest documented use: 1668.
USAGE:
“It soon becomes clear that the disappearances have something to do with the caves hidden in the penetralia of the surrounding forest.”
Time-Travel Drama Weaves a Tangled Web; Financial Times (London, UK); Jun 12, 2020.
“The most absolute lawlessness exists under the shadow of the tallest temples of the law, and in the penetralia of that society which vaunts itself as the supreme civilization of the world.”
Emerson Hough; Story of the Outlaw; Grosset and Dunlap; 1906.
See more usage examples of penetralia in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.
Takes One to Know One Word of the Day:
eutherian
Chances are you’ve been called worse, but has your dog? In this case, the label applies equally: eutherians are mammals that have a placenta, and thus comprise all mammals except the marsupials and a small and primitive order that includes echidnas and duckbilled platypi.
