Sunset scene, Salt River Station

Jaco Fouché

It's early summer evening, and coming down the steps I look
At platforms, brick shelters, overhead lines, metal tracks.
The station is engineered out of sunlight. Even the haze under the bridge
Is that rusty shade of gold, the colour of toy cars or old books.
Or maybe it's like the collar pattern of a jacket you'd expect in a museum.
And through this haze move the dark feet, the shirts, the skirts and hats
Of a few hundred commuters heading for or along platform two
Where presently, the tinny speaker assures us, the 6:17 will pull in.

It is hot - the heat of shoe soles in the street -
And noisy. Vendors are selling sweets, popcorn and cigarettes
Balanced on stained carton. Women wearing shawls meet
And clasp both hands and laugh. A man is loudly selling leather sleeves
For ID documents. Somebody runs, pursued in hilarity by a friend.
Two young men are playing on a small set a standing game of chess.
Two other men, the one nodding at the other, share a bottle of beer.
Cigarette smoke joins the haze. People lean over the edge of the platform,
Staring down the twin shining tracks at where the train should appear
Any time now from the golden vanishing point.

LitNet: 26 November 2004

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