My Brother's Trains
Anne Zuckerman
Larger than hands
Those metal trains
On the crisscrossing
Tracks
Running in circles
Loud whistles
Flashing lights
Little pills
In the engine’s stack
Make it smoke
Signs stop
Railroad crossing
Empty houses
Painted grass.
Those tiny chairs
In my small house
A dining room table
A tiny pot, aplastic turkey
Forks, spoons and knives
An ironing board and iron
Rooms with windows
No view of grass
No trees, silence
Nothing move
Waiting
For dolls
That do not fit
The couch.
About the Author
Anne Zuckerman studied with Charles Simic at the University of New Hampshire and with Heather McHugh at the University of Washington, where she received an MFA in poetry writing. At that time, she had poems published in Ploughshares #40, New Letters # 53, and other smaller magazines and journals. After teaching and raising a family in Seattle and China, she has come back to
writing more attentively. She currently lives on Whidbey Island in Washington State.