Caroline Shepard

Riding to the West Coast

Your train tracks will not be

thought of by people crossing

the country.

I will not think about

the small journey you take

every day, slat by slat.

Nor will I dream of you

pulling up each board,

unbolting the metal and building back

to cowboys in the living room,

to how we once were.

Blue Crab

My mother told me

I’d get into trouble

for not being able to

say no.

It was as if she

was telling a sad story

with no setting, no plot,

no characters. Just that

feeling of a yank—

like watching a crab be

pulled from the ocean floor.

CP

Caroline Shepard is a teacher and poet in New York City. Her work has appeared in Construction Magazine, Freerange Nonfiction, The Cobalt Review, Eunoia Review and Promethean.