Poem of the Week

This week’s Poem of the Week is chosen "The Train Driver" written by Irish Poet Maurice Devitt. Here we see the third- person narrative fragment. The external world is descending in an illusionary dome, encapsulating the person’s subconscious mind. It is depicted so beautifully.

The train driver

who lives next door

has been known to talk in his sleep,

reciting timetables to his wife,

eyes blinking faster

when they enter a tunnel.

He sits up suddenly in bed,

cries out as the wardrobe

hurtles towards him,

his legs straightening

against the footboard as he brakes,

frame sparking and screeching

to a halt, yards from a boy

who used to bully him at school,

scared eyes piercing the night.

Maurice Devitt – Bio

A past winner of the Trocaire/Poetry Ireland and Poems for Patience competitions, he published his debut collection, ‘Growing Up in Colour’, with Doire Press in 2018.

Curator of the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies site, his Pushcart-nominated poem, ‘The Lion Tamer Dreams of Office Work’, was the title poem of an anthology published by Hibernian Writers in 2015.