Damon Hubbs

Watching Trains 

Drinking Mad Dog on the stoop in Oneonta, NY. 
Stoneonta, The City of the Hills. 
Telling Tom about the Christmas morning 
My Father hit a golf ball through the neighbor’s window;
Telling Jones about lighting a cigarette 
Off a lightbulb in Heather’s bedroom, 
Her pleasure dome postered with Seventeen and Tiger Beat; 
About shooting fish in the Susquehanna 
Doing coke
Watching trains.  
Telling Jones about going to New Paltz 
To visit a girl who’d already forgotten me; 
Telling Tom about my three week vacation
In the Psych Ward, the hospital tuck,
The sun lobotomized, the beds bolted to the floor; 
Watching trains
Doing coke
Playing the corner
Smoking ‘Nam weed with Keith under the viaduct, 
His father —damaged goods, a fly rink like Colonel Kurtz, 
Handlebar mustache like an old pump trolley; 
Falling in love with Kristin
And Nikki
And Lori, & Jen. 
Telling Tom about Downtown Ian 
And the dealer we called “the Id,”
The payphone by Rite Aid, 
Circle Park, Table Rock, Easy Jackie 
And her Heavy Metal jackets; 
Remembering the snowfields as high as the house
Watching trains 
And the hills hem us in
Falling in love with Kim
And Nikki (again)
& Tracey. 
Marrying Lori. 
Telling Jones about carrying a pitcher 
Of Saranac Black & Tan 
From The Oak 
To Joel’s apartment on West Street
And not spilling a drop;   
Telling Tom about Rose’s husband 
And how he dragged his couch to the curb 
On a summer night and lit it on fire, 
How he lit Rose on fire two months later; 
Remembering 
This was no Fern Hill
Watching the trains 
We knew 
That death came for everyone.