“Utopia” by Louise Glück (repost)

On By Christina's WordsIn Poetry

When the train stops, the woman said, you must get on it. But how will I
know, the child asked, it is the right train? It will be the right train, said the
woman, because it is the right time. A train approached the station; clouds
of grayish smoke streamed from the chimney. How terrified I am, the child
thinks, clutching the yellow tulips she will give to her grandmother. Her hair
has been tightly braided to withstand the journey. Then, without a word,
she gets on the train, from which a strange sound comes, not in a language
like the one she speaks, something more like a moan or a cry.

“Utopia” by Louise Glück, from Faithful and Virtuous Night. © Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

 

(originally posted December 11, 2016)

2 thoughts on ““Utopia” by Louise Glück (repost)”

    1. This poem absolutely breaks my heart…especially the end, the sound the train makes, “something more like a moan or a cry.”

      All those children, gone. Plucked like tulips from the cold ground. Gone to some beyond, while the train, the parents, the world moan and cry. So sad.

      Liked by 3 people

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