So this woman is riding on an Amtrak train with her 80-year old father. He dies in Colorado, in a sleeping cabin. Does she tell the conductor? No.
She waits 23 hours till they arrive in downtown Chicago. After all, he had already paid his fare, and she was short on cash. Why pay more to take him off the train, put him in a box, and ship him in baggage?
He was lying in the sleeper
When he finally met the reaper,
But his daughter let him stay
On the train another day.
Woah! How crazy is that!
ReplyDeleteHmm, on a totally different note: I just only realized what incredible power of integration it must take for you to condense a story such as this (and almost anything you blog about) in a few lines of lovely, simple, rhyming verse.
I think it probably comes easy to you now... but only because your mind has gotten used to exerting that kind of effort at conceptualizing and integrating the essentials of a story... now, your brain is all "muscled up"... it can handle this easily.
Awesome.
The story's pretty crazy. I do wonder if the daughter was stressed out of her mind. But she was quoted as saying it was about money, which is pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteI do have the process pretty automated, and some days it flows right out. But there are times when I'm tired and it takes ENTIRELY TOO LONG just to come up with one crummy couplet! Even then, I enjoy the process.
Oh, and I neglected to say: Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou see, you got me thinking about exactly what it is I do when I write these little things... and I forgot my manners!