Platform Four

The board still flickers the same old way Departures every twenty minutes We never seem to catch one Crowded morning, platform four You were reading with your coffee going cold I let the 8:15 pull out without me Told myself the next one, then the next one, then I spoke You looked up slow, like you'd been waiting For some fool to finally miss his train Two strangers, one timetable And the nerve I found from God-knows-where Meet me on platform four, my love Same worn tiles, same morning light from above The trains kept leaving and we kept on talking The whole world boarding while we stood there locked in Every year we go back and stand where it began — Platform four, where I missed my train and caught your hand You said your stop was seven stations north I've still never seen you ride that line We counted later: four departures gone While we traded names and argued paperbacks The diesel smell, the garbled speaker calling Cities we ignored — we were already arriving Two tickets, never punched Best fare I never used Meet me on platform four, my love Same worn tiles, same morning light from above The trains kept leaving and we kept on talking The whole world boarding while we stood there locked in Every year we go back and stand where it began — Platform four, where I missed my train and caught your hand Someday they'll tear it down or rename the line Put in new tile, scrub our morning off the floor Won't matter. I've got it memorized: Your cold coffee. My bad opener. The 8:15's last call. We let it go. We let them all. So meet me on platform four, my love Same two fools, a few more grays above The trains still leave on time — we still don't care We've been missing them together for years, and getting somewhere Every year, same tiles, same hand in my hand — Platform four, where the rest of my life began There goes another one Let it run We're not done talking