June 19th, 2026Local Lines

Rajdhani Express

Runs between Delhi and Varinasi in India

Rajdhani Express is a travelling limbo
With time standing still on both sides of the window.
With goats in the hallways and chooks on the racks
Jammed in between luggage small kids and backpacks,
It’s wise on this journey to chain bags to seats
And this lumpy mattress makes your bed complete.
There’s life in abundance all tumbling around
But space is respected with minimal sound.
These people just happy they’re living and coping
And not on their iPhones with envy and moping.

Then vendors at stations with food on their shoulders
Bananas on poles hot urns stacked like boulders.
Young and old begging and some of them crippled
Like ibis on tip-sites, once white and now stippled.
Then monkeys invading with rabid green teeth
And men fighting back with knives out of their sheath.
While high on the hillsides stand rich tea plantations
And terraced below them rice fields in rotation.
Some people in prayer with their offered up pujas
Are chanting in Hindi heartfelt hallelujahs.
This train reveals life here as one big heart beating
Where all lives are sacred but also quite fleeting.

– Tom Perfect

This poem is a continuation of the theme that runs through all of Tom’s poetry: looking for the spiritually significant in the ordinary.

Local Lines features poetry by locals about local and any other matters.
Please submit poems to Bill Wootton at cottlesbreedge@gmail.com