The long-lost caterpillar has come back

As if reassuring a child,speaking slowly with occasional rants

---

The caterpillar will come. It will
push our train back on its tracks.
With a single puff from its chimney.
The driver reclines in his
arm and leg chair, smiling at us all.

The dirty big yellow caterpillar will come,
a tractor that will stop us in our tracks.
As we must not wake the sleepers
we play slippery sam with thomas
awaiting our rescue.

So when it comes we're ready.
It passes once a week.
You set watches by its beat.
We take a ride, abandoning
our topsy-turvy train.

THE HUGE, SMELLY, WHINING, SHINY CATERPILLAR
  has come.
Snorting its way to market
with a vengeance and a gross of pothooks.
We were tran-sub-stantiated by its immensity.
As it hums along its tracks-acks-acks-acks
in the damp mountain air
     - it eats grass!

Dennis List