The Assignment
The father studied the route before he left
and wrote it down —
the stop, the time,
what to take, where to stand.
He left it for someone who might need it.
He got as far as the door.
His son stood on the platform
with what had been written down,
a card that still worked, money still on it.
The train was not coming.
The son stood where he had been told to stand.
Somewhere the father
was feeding five thousand with what he had.
The son did not know this.
He only knew the instructions —
the route, the stop, the time.
He did not know who wrote it,
only that he got a C6 for literature.