Lines

There's momentary panic when you hear
The wrong announcement from the leaving train
A burst of worry intermixed with fear
That somehow you have mixed up what was plain
And ended heading in the wrong direction,
So you must scramble past the closing doors
To rectify your failure of selection
Before you're borne to distant, useless shores
From which it is a terror to return.
Your heart is racing, and your mind opaque,
Something internal wants to lurch and burn,
And you are praying you can somehow make
Your way off of the train. Then you conceive:
You heard the other train about to leave.