How it is left

You leave.

You leave with a smile
And a promise.
You leave wearing a frown
And a heart of sadness.
You leave the past behind,
a harvest of words
lingering
on pages
piled
here
and there.
You leave to be with a complete stranger - the future.

You leave thinking you've learned a lot,
Mostly how to jump right in,
And then right out.
You leave thinking
But there's so much more to learn,
And how you will
never
have enough
time
to learn it all.
You leave knowing you've finished something - that has no end.

So, here is how it is left.

You leave riding opposite ends of a train,
Not split in two
but stretched out along the tracks.
You leave riding,
Not in 1st class style,
But hidden in the undercarriage
Where you could go deaf -
from the
churning
and chugga-chugging
of the metal -
Or die
A stowaway who
Couldn't hang on - for dear life.

Or, you can find your way
Through compartments
Seeing if you fit
Here
Or there.
You can do that.
Or you can look up and
Remember
It's been done before.
The climb up
each
metal
rung
And get hit by the wind
That makes your eyes water
And think - why not?

Why not??
Because
You were crazy
To have done
Such a thing
And now it's too late
And the train won't
Stop
just because
you think
it should.
The train is gone.
You're gone.

And that's how it is left.