Leaving Vigo

With sad and friendly eyes she answers yes

when I ask if Santiago trains are on.

Seventy-five fatalities, or more:

un accidente horrible – she nods.

A message wishes us a pleasant trip,

the carriage has an eerie muffled mood,

its notice says 130 km per hour,

we read our newspapers and phones, subdued.

I see Camino pilgrims stumbling,

their spirits springing up from bloody rails;

fresh donations from Gallegos streaming

through some survivors’ arteries and veins.

The train conductor doesn’t meet my gaze.

At journey’s end we disembark with haste.

© Maeve O’Sullivan

Dubliner Maeve O’Sullivan’s work has been widely published and anthologised for twenty years. Her collections  poetry (Vocal Chords, 2014), are from Alba Publishing. www.twitter.com/maeveos