Next Door to the Depot, by Alarie Tennille

Evening Limited to Memphis, by Romare Bearden (USA), 1987.

Next Door to the Depot

Trains pass in the night
wailin’ out the blues,
askin’ me, “Hey, loser,
what else you gonna lose?”

Seems I’m always here
glued right to this spot
holdin’ onto misery
like it’s everything I’ve got.

Maybe I’m a fool
ignorin’ all those trains.
Maybe I should jump one
and not come back again.

Trains pass in the night
wailin’ out the blues,
askin’ me, “Hey, loser,
what else you gonna lose?”

Alarie Tennille

Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com.