Stroud Railway Station

Yes. I remember Stroud Station –

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train broke down there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

My phone broke. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left in the ticket office

Or the bare platform. What I saw

Was Stroud Station – only the name

And no one, no one there, no staff,

Just a broken-down ticket machine

And my broken phone where I swear

And stare at the rain clouds in the air.

And for that minute a revenant cried,

Close by, and around him, mistier

Farther and farther, all passengers

In Stroud’s Five Valleys in Gloucestershire.