blood lines
dedicated to my maternal grandfather ‘Pop’ Rumble,
my uncle and nephew
december 2014

3 generations
worked on the rails
the grandfather drove
steam locomotives
down those tracks
that were heavy
labour through
bush, round spur
and spiral
the son,
the grandson too
stayed on the
straight and narrow
followed suit
driving the
engines through
bush, round spur
and spiral
remembering the
grandfather in
night’s chill down
those silver lines
a ghost broad
as a moonlit
cloud coming
up off the ridge
the big gruff
star there
trilling slow
to the call
of the morepork
those rails
in the blood
the straight
and narrow
Copyright © 2017 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved
The music for the reading is from a performance by Jeremy Wilson on trombone & Caleb Harris on piano of “Piece in E-flat minor” by Breton composer & poet Guy Ropartz (1864 – 1955).