All Aboard

I hold on to mama's hem,
but my little brother
thinks he's too big
to hold on.

We scurry after daddy,
dodging tall trousers,
nylon stockings
suitcases and
greasy shoe boxes,
finally finding seats
in the back car
crowded with colored.

Fried chicken from home
comforts us
too young to know
there's a dining car
where we cannot go.

*Oz Hopkins Koglin, a former newspaper reporter, was born in North Carolina, grew up in St. Louis, Mo. and graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. She often writes about growing up during American apartheid. Her poems have appeared in The Oregonian, Hubbub poetry magazine, and selected by the Friends of William Stafford for the Trinity Episcopal Arts Commission's peace exhibit in Portland.