Railroad Marbles

 

Railroad Marbles

When I was a scruffy kid back in Texas,

   We used to go down to the tracks that led up

To the old fiberglass plant. There was a turn there

   Just before you got to the plant.

The hopper cars were filled with railroad marbles,

   The stuff for making insulation and fiberglass;

The big sheets of pink stuff that makes you itch.

   But we didn’t care about that, there were marbles.

Lying along the right of way where Santa Fe

   Thoughtfully spilled some cargo beside the rails for us,

Some scruffy kids who gathered up glass railroad marbles

   By the sack for their collection jars and marble bags. 

© 2018 by Tom King

.