The Redball Express

A slightly earlier version of this poem first appeared on my Richard Musto blog -- it's essentially the same except for four new lines at the beginning of the second stanza.


The Redball Express


Write what you know about

Is what the teachers always say 

At the Famous Writers’ Academy

So I have been drawn

Time and again

As to a lifetime quest

And now find myself 

The self-appointed chronicler

Of Richard Musto’s ride

On the Redball Express

A train to nowhere

Arriving fast

Just as from first to last

Various members

Of my immediate family

Have too often succumbed

To the overpowering tendency

To gamble without self-restraint

For me now the problem has 

Assumed a slightly different shape

Namely my bane has become

The intermittent care and

Consideration of an old man

Himself severely afflicted

As evidenced by many clearly
Cognizable symptoms

Of the very same curse