Friday, January 15, 2016

Confession of a Railroad Thief

Confession of a Railroad Thief

A small gang usually five,
sometimes more sometimes less,
each morning on the way to college,
met at the New York, New Haven
and Hartford Railroad train depot.
I don’t remember who thought of it,
or if it was passed on by railroad
thieves before us. We bought
student train tickets good for a month.
Each book had sixty coupons, We needed
forty five at most. Removing
the first ten coupons and holding
them aside, we began with number eleven.
The conductor checked
the book’s date when a coupon
with a high number was offered,
but we were safely within date.
When the date passed we used
the lower numbered ones.
How much we stole from the
company, I do not know.  Did we
cause its ruin?  I do not know.

Mea Culpa.    
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three cinquain type poems based on the above

                thieves
           railroad gang
  student ticket embezzlers
we never repented misdeeds
            unforgiven                      

                           tickets
                   student discount
          scam the train every month
embezzled for years and never caught
                          just kids.
 
                         students
                   clever, devious
       studying, scrimping, scheming
another hamburg for each buck swindled
                         learners
photo from web.  It a scene in a movie which came out about 1910.

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