A Moment
- 14 hours ago
- 1 min read
By Eli Ehrenpreis
PROMPT—Never will I forget ...
I heard a poem,
As a train approached.
Swaying while it moved toward me.
Curving left and right along the tracks.
Filling my visual field.
And steaming tropical heat from its engine.
The waving grass, the birds flying off,
The dirt and gravel crunching.
The ground shuttering, glass cracking.
Its engine screeching and burring.
That was the time to cast the moment
as the train passed by.
Those are the words I missed
that never will return.
Eli Ehrenpreis is a physician, educator, and writer who stopped seeing patients in 2016 after a major surgery. He has published many scientific papers and six books on medical topics. His poetry and short stories have appeared in Reapparition, Medicine and Meaning, Bright Flash, Of the Book, Hektoen International, and Star 82 Review. His creative work often focuses on nature, medicine, psychology, and spirituality. He lives with his wife Ana and two small dogs in Skokie, Illinois.