Choteau Station

“Choteau Station”
it was still here, thank god,
good ol’ flat Oklahoma waiting for me

looking out the window,
wanting to catch a glimpse of the farm
a bunch of other boys was on the train with me,
hollerin, calling me sergeant
didn’t matter none, I was done with all that anyway,
that itchy wool buried in my trunk

pulling into the station a couple hours early,
picked up a newspaper off a bench,
weren’t nothing worth reading about
walked around watching others
saw Jimmy getting helped off the train,
that vacant stare he’d picked up in France
had to set down a spell, wipe the dust out my eye

waiting for Hattie, shouldn’t be long now,
hoping she’d still recognize the boy who left
twirling a cigarette between my fingers,
watching the clock, it’d be soon
telling me I only had one good lung left,
them docs told me I shouldn’t smoke
lit it anyway and took a deep drag,
them fellers also told a lot of boys they’d make it

it has to be her, that pretty girl in the yeller dress,
walking toward me
be undignified to run to her, pick her up,
sure wanted to though
hold her in my arms tell her I loved her,
how much them letters she wrote meant
stood and waited instead,
asking if I could hold her hand

walking back to her daddy’s truck for the drive home,
telling her all the dreams I had for us, our future,
sitting in that cold wet mud
she looked at me with those pretty green eyes
flashing that sweet smile
“that sounds real nice LW, there just ain’t that much here no more”