Thomas Alan Orr

Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895)


The locomotive looms into view,
pouring smoke as it comes to rest.
The first one off the train, a man in a cap,
turns, hands thrust in his pockets,
glances over his shoulder as he walks,
disappearing from the camera’s eye.

It was said, when the Lumière brothers
showed this early motion picture made
with their fledgling cinématographe,
that people ran screaming from the room
as the locomotive veered toward them –
fifty seconds of wonder and amazement.

The cinéma had no future,
the brothers thought – a mere curiosity.
They looked to other endeavors then,
setting aside their clever device,
hand-cranked like a hurdy-gurdy,
though silent as the images it caught.

And that man in the cap, accidental star
of the show, compels our questions –
looking for his lover, evading pursuit,
or just hunting for the jakes
and a quick drink after his journey?
He is the face remembered, a mystery still.

 

Thomas Alan Orr raises Flemish Giant rabbits on a farm in Indiana. He is a workforce development consultant. His most recent collection is Tongue to the Anvil: New and Selected Poems. The Lumière brothers’ historic film may be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk