The Learning Curve

Photo by Leonardo Cardozo Ferreira on Unsplash

I thought I had learned it —
the edge of human decency,
where the claws come out,
and understanding shudders into fragments.

It isn’t here, that station
where the trainman says, “Last stop;
everybody out.”
It was actually behind me, in the distance.

Now the train is gone,
and uncertain shapes gambol
or slither in the shadow
at the platform’s edge, as I look backward at the curve —

that curving rail
that brought me to this place.
I wonder if another
train will come before the light goes out.