You are currently viewing Girls on the Train

Girls on the Train

Poetry + Travel = Inspiration

 The bride with her short veil
And tiara decorated with a tiny
Penis that we hope, in a moment of solidarity
Is not to scale

Her friends, BFF in fact all from
Their home town or the local  
College

Surround her in the public car
they talk loudly
Of resting bitch face (making the face)
new bras (poking one another in the breast)
the cost of grocery bags (up to 5P, 10 P if you want a really good bag
they agreed they really wanted the good bags 
possibly with an attractive designer  logo)

Peals of laughter 
over the bras and bags
they declared to us, the hapless fellow passengers
they haven't even begun to drin

they were already drunk- on now
on what was ahead
on the speed of the train.

Inspiration:  A bus ride, even though a train is more romantic.

 I had loaded onto a local bus with my elderly (traveling with my elderly mother, who dictates the pace of our travel) tour group (Grand Circle Tours) to ride from Guiell park back to our hotel close to  The Rambla de Catalunya.   I ended up completely surrounded by a group of exuberant and hilarious British young ladies here to party.  I ran into a number of younger people down from the northern climates to enjoy the warmth, food, and wine of Spain.  

The girls were, they explained,, not even yet drunk, although that was next on their itinerary.  Over one shoulder I could see the pursed lips of some of our tour ladies.  So loud, so irreverent!  Yet I love them, so alive, so enthusiastic, so full of life.

That’s why I wanted to use the train metaphor, the idea of our lives racing ahead, we can’t see the conductor, all we know is the next stop, we aren’t even sure of the final destination. 

When our guide announced our stop, and all the tour group groaned to a standing position,  one of the young ladies commented – oh yes now it’s the old person’s stop.

I grinned as I exited along with the rest of the group.

She leaned over and exclaimed, “Oh, but not you!”

CatharineBramkamp

Catharine Bramkamp is a successful writing coach and author. She has published over 300 newspaper and magazine articles in publications like Modern Maturity (AARP), SF Chronicle and Santa Rosa Magazine. She was a contributor to two Chicken Soup Books and has published anthologies of her work, non-fiction works and novels. Her work has also appeared in a number of poetry and fiction anthologies. She has experimented with the self-publishing world since 2001. She has published and self-published seven books through companies like Author House, author assist companies like 3L Publishing and through traditional publishers like Write Life. Her poetry collection, Ammonia Sunrise, will be released in August 2011 by Finishing Line Press and her mystery novel, In Good Faith will be released by Write Life in 2011. Catharine holds a BA in English from UCSB and a MA in English from Sonoma State University. She is a 25 year member of California Writer’s Club. She is an adjunct professor for the University of Phoenix. She works with authors of both fiction and non-fiction to make their dream of producing a book come true. For more information on that, visit her at www.YourBookStartsHere.com Catharine has lived in Sonoma County for 25 years and considers wine a food group. She is married to an adorable and very patient man who complains he’s never featured in any of her books. Her grown children who are featured in a few of her books have fled the county.

Leave a Reply