The Next Station

This poem is for anyone who has followed a path for so long that turning back feels like betrayal, even when the view outside the window no longer feels like home. Based on an old Japanese legend, it moves through the ache of lost time, the grief of outgrowing an old dream, and the strange courage it takes to step away from a life you once chose with your whole heart. It is about the moment between endings and beginnings, when the tracks still hum beneath you, but something deeper begins asking where you truly belong.

You spent years on a train toward the life you thought was true,

only to reach the window and no longer recognize the view.

The lost miles ache, the ticket bears the price of all you’ve known,

but riding past your station will not make the journey home.

You cannot call back vanished years or force the tracks to bend,

get off at the next stop, the wrong road need not be the end.

You chose this destination with the clearest eyes you had,

before the view grew unfamiliar and the journey made you sad.

The dreams that once sustained you may now tighten like a chain,

and loyalty to who you were can keep you on the train.