LEAVING WESTFORD by Timothy Tarkelly

If your train runs a little slower,

I won’t hold it against you.

Time is out of your control,

and it teases us, teaches

that anticipation has always

just been distance divided by rate,

so we forget the middle, we will meet

in between any two points you can get to

and we will derive just as much power

from your 60mph heart as we need

to breathe life into these moments,

a simple day, a single vincula

holding the whole trip together,

in spite of its best efforts

to keep one apart from the other.

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Timothy Tarkelly's work has appeared in Back Patio Press, WIld Roof Journal, Unstamatic, and more. He has two collections for poetry published by Spartan Press: Luckhound (2020) and Gently in Manner, Strongly in Deed: Poems on Eisenhower (2019). When he's not writing, he teaches in Southeast Kansas. You can find him on twitter @timothytarkelly