Black Beetles in Amber - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 130

A PROMISED FAST TRAIN

I turned my eyes upon the Future's scrollAnd saw its pictured prophecies unroll.I saw that magical life-laden trainFlash its long glories o'er Nebraska's plain.I saw it smoothly up the mountain glide."O happy, happy passengers!" I cried.For Pleasure, singing, drowned the engine's roar,And Hope on joyous pinions flew before.Then dived the train adown the sunset slope—Pleasure was silent and unseen was Hope.Crashes and shrieks attested the decayThat greed had wrought upon that iron way.The rusted rails broke down the rotting ties,And clouds of flying spikes obscured the skies.My coward eyes I drew away, distressed,And fixed them on the terminus to-West,Where soon, its melancholy tale to tell,One bloody car-wheel wabbled in and fell!