Date: March 22, 2023Author: Edge of Humanity Magazine

Written by Mary Anne Abdo

Sixty days and these departures are always on Sunday

Was the Sabbath more timely for everyone to depart?

Notices and phones calls of loved ones leaving the train station.

Departures from Ireland, Texas, Florida, New York and Scranton.

Trying to console one another as this speeding train moves on.

Past the curtained vale.

Past a soldier’s wake.

Past the locked unit of a nursing home.

Past Loch Gorman near Kilmore.

Past the Polish ancestors.

Past the home of compassion.

I don’t want to have time for this train.

We all have tickets in hand awaiting our destiny of time.

A few close whistle calls made the conductor’s platform.

It was not their time on the train schedule.

I sit here and weep of those who left the train station.

On God’s time.

Text © Mary Anne Abdo

Thank you to the Edge of Humanity Magazine for publishing this poem. Lately it seems I am visiting funeral homes and sending condolence cards in memory of family along with close friends. I understand it is part of life, but it has been very draining.