On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955

• ''Hello, she said, and startled me.''
• ''Nice day. Nice day I agreed.''
• ''I am a Quaker she said and Sunday''
• ''I was moved in silence''
• ''to speak a poem loudly''
• ''for racial brotherhood.''
• ''I was thoughtful, then said''
• ''what poem came on like that?''
• ''what poem came on like that?'' - the poem is a metaphor for the relationship between the speaker and the woman (poem layout)
• ''One the moment inspired she said.''
• ''I was again thoughtful.''
• ''Inexplicably I saw''
• ''empty city streets lit dimly''
• ''in a day's first hours.''
• ''Alongside in darkness''
• ''was my father's big banana field.''
• ''Where are you from? she said.''
• ''Jamaica I said.''
• ''What part of Africa is Jamaica? she said.''
• ''Where Ireland is near Lapland I said.''
• '''Hard to see why you leave''
• ''such sunny country she said.''
• ''Snow falls elsewhere I said.''
• ''So sincere she was beautiful''
• ''as people sat down around us.''