Albert Kapikian: Every madness has its miles

Mine was the walking on the rails, 

the head down walking on the rails

in the rain was mine.

If I was sad, I wasn’t broken,

when I went walking on the railroad tracks

where I went looking for the spokens, 

the ancient spokens

inside the depots and the dead ends 

where I found my family

and made my friends.

Every madness is its miles.

Mine was the walking on the rails, 

the head down walking on the rails 

in the rain was mine.






This poem appeared in "The Sligo Journal",  an online, campus- and community-based arts and letters journal which features the work of the Montgomery College-Takoma Park / Silver Spring campus and the Takoma Park / Silver Spring community in Maryland.