Spine-tingling railway sleepers ---
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Sleepy houses lying four-square and firm
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Orange beams divide the darkness
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Rumbling fit to turn the waking worm.
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Sliding through Victorian tunnels
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where green moss oozes from the pores.
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Dull echoes from the wet embankments
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Battlefield allotments. Fresh open sores.
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In late night commuter madness
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Double-locked black briefcase on the floor
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like a faithful dog with master
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sleeping in the draught beside the carriage door.
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To each Journeyman his own home-coming
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Cold supper nearing with each station stop
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Frosty flakes on empty platforms
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Fireside slippers waiting. Flip. Flop.
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Journeyman night-tripping on the late fantasic
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Too late to stop for tea at Gerard's Cross
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and hear the soft shoes on the footbridge shuffle
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as the wheels turn biting on the midnight frost.
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On the late commuter special
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Carriage lights that flicker, fade and die
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Howling into hollow blackness
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Dusky diesel shudders in full cry.
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Down redundant morning papers
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Abandon crosswords with a cough
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Stationmaster in his wisdom
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told the guard to turn the heating off.
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-----------------
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Journeyman
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| Jethro Tull |
