The Beginning of a Long Sleep

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Drugged by lethargy on the sofa
I sank deep into my own pathos,
The world retracted and I offered
No resistance.

The T.V was on and seemed an
Absurdity, the phone rang too,
Its peel was distant as ringing in
Another room for someone else.

A train stopped at my terminal,
People, who didn’t know each other
Since they belonged to different
Stages of my life time, alighted

Steam hissed from the locomotive,
A whistle blew a green flag waved.
The train moved, slowly at first and
I was its only passenger.