Nostalgia

„Through pleasures and palaces“ –
Through hotels, and Pullman cars, and steamships …

Pink and white camellias
     floating in a crystal bowl,
The sharp smell of firewood,
The scrape and rustle of a dog streching himself
     on a hardwood floor,
And your voice, reading – reading –
     to the slow ticking of an old brass clock …

„Tickets, please!“
And I watch the man in front of me
Fumbling in fourteen pockets,
While the conductor balances his ticket-punch
Between his fingers.