The Russian Train
the Russian train runs on only time
bones come from its exhaust pipe
we twirl our black umbrellas
and there is no dream
we twirl our spotted ones
and an old village appears
children from St. Petersburg plant flowers
and near them a shootout on cracked earth
goodbye goodbye fateful angels
we must run as if we were on the moon
we’ll find beds filled with hearts
dark storehouses for bombs
no words but belts full of bullets
there goes our blue train
I wish you and I could last until the horizon
with its soundtrack of piano and bells
Levers
grandfather clock ticks the rotation
of its Victorian sun and moon
brass weights rise with a crank
on its filigreed face
the hour goes as fast
as you want it to go
think it slowly
and its dazzled eye will slow
wish it stopped
and the chimes’ report will cease
or speed toward your hope
and it will ease your heart
the minute hand wavers
as your decision wavers
the light of the sun
freezes between chimes
wind it backward to hear
the voices of the dead
forward to skip past illness
or stop to savor fog
Cammy Thomas’s newest collection, Tremors (Four Way Books), received Poetry Honors from the Massachusetts Book Awards in 2022. Cathedral of Wish received the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. A fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation helped her complete Inscriptions. In March 2022, Far Past War, an orchestral setting of her poems composed by her sister, Augusta Read Thomas, premiered at Washington DC’s National Cathedral. She lives in Bolton, MA.
