A Whistle Blower Failed

One night i heard the midnight train

and then i went to sleep again.

Mostly, i didn’t do it

but i slept right on through it.

We lived beside the railroad track.

The same train kept coming back.

Called a Chattanooga Choo Choo;

you may have heard of it too.

That night i had failed to hear

the whistle as choo choo came near.

Why the whistle didn’t blow

none of us will ever know.

The silence kept the town awake.

The engineer made a mistake.

Walt Abbott 4-11-2012