Chasing the Train on the Highway

 Chasing the Train on the Highway

―To my daughter

 

View of the Kearney Archway through a dirty windshield

I’m catching up with the train
chugging east, looming its shadow
over my left shoulder
 

and it hits me that this will be
the last time I drive home from
visiting you at your apartment

 
in the same state as me
because you’re about to move
far away into that great big

 
beyond out there and finally
fully open those adult wings
we all must use someday.

 
I feel confident in your abilities,
though I know you
are restless and nervous.

 
Realize this: In life
we are always practicing because
we’re never perfect.

 
You’ll do well wherever
you’re planted. And I’m right here,
even if right here is farther away.

 
I fully believe it is my duty and
honor to serve you with
love and guidance—that is one of

 
my roles while chugging along on earth.
I overtake the train to my left
and leave it behind with

 
our memories of the past while
a wide-open path for the future
remains, beckoning and unknown.

 
The sun begins to set on today
and I hold on to hope and gratitude,
let them drip onto the remnants

 
of the day and my own tracks
headed home, chasing the train
on the highway one last time.

 

by Julie S. Paschold
aka Tansy Julie the Soaring Eagle

5.27.26

 

Italicized quote from Marsha Schwartz