My Great Grandparents Meet at the Turn of Time
A train rolls from New York City
To Boston along the coast.
The lights of the towns
Along the north shore of the sound
Drift along in the night.
In a crowded compartment
A dark-haired young man sits
Next to a fair-skinned young lady
With light brown hair.
He is tall, eschewing a hat
And gives the impression of wiriness
Even through his suit.
Her eyes are green.
“Are you from Connecticut?” she asks.
“Yes, my team and I are going back to Lordship.”
“Your team?”
“Yes, I’m on a basket ball club.”
“Basket ball? What’s that?”
The train rolls on into the twentieth century.
It is the beginning of the year,
And the windows are up.
• • •
Robert C. Monroe is a lifelong Californian currently residing near Los Angeles, some of whose previous poetic efforts can be found on Poetrysuperhighway.com. He attended UC Berkeley and UCLA as a history major, with an emphasis in the military history of the US and that of classical antiquity. In addition to reading and writing poetry, enjoying audio books (historical fiction, other novels, and non-fiction on war mostly), his favorite pursuits include playing basketball, watching baseball/softball and football, chess, gambling of all sorts, and performing his poetry, prose, and even occasionally comedy at open-mics from Santa Monica to Riverside.