Get on the bus at the hospital stop

just by the Stag and Hounds,

the conductor in his uniform will clip a ticket

you'll ride in a chattering of joy past fields

a cemetery and a farm. 

 

In no time at all you'll enter Staines

its shops with blinds drawn down

past the depot with its crittall windows

the town hall and its welcoming square

Church Street's quiet calm.

 

Round a corner the mustard mill

in pond encircled shade,

 the station converted from a house by the GWR,

hot nosed buses connecting with

a backwater everglade.

 

Just as if in some bygone age

you wait for the labouring train

ploughing its snout in the troughs of thickets,

a carriage with its bell in brown and cream

has a guard in cap and braid.

 

Across the moor it'll cut a swathe

of smoke and sun and clouds

underneath a humpback bridge at Poyle

over the river Colne to Buckinghamshire

a foreign land for a boy.

 

A land of fast metals and railway yards

West Drayton tight with signals

the green and brass thunder of a Castle class

makes your day complete as it barrels through,

transporting you with joy. . 

 

Round a corner the mustard mill

in pond encircled shade

converted from a house by the GWR

the station and the hot nosed buses

a backwater everglade.

 

Just as if in some bygone age

you wait for the labouring train

ploughing its snout in the troughs of thickets

a carriage with its bell in brown and cream

has a guard in cap and braid. 

 

Across the moor it'll cut a swathe

of smoke and sun and clouds

underneath a humpback bridge at Poyle

over the river Colne to Buckinghamshire

a foreign land for a boy. 

 

A land of fast metals and railway yards

West Drayton tight with signals

the green and brass thunder of a Castle class

makes your day complete as it barrels through

transporting you with joy.