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Slow Train To Jerusalem Concluded


Still aboard that Slow Train
When it came to leaving school
I followed the conventional route
Into Civil Service Clerical pool,
Achieving  a bare competence,
Certainly very little more
No chance of being invited past
The High Flyers' escape door.
The conditioning still enduring,
The need for security not gone,
I stayed with the Establishment
When it was time to move on,

Into the comfort of the Army
In a very specialised role
Into which I threw myself
With my whole heart and soul.
The conditioning must have been
Wearing, I never knew what to say
Barely escaping a Court Martial
Before an early demob day.
The Civil Service welcomed
Back one of its errant own
But by now it seems
My confidence had grown.
At the age of twenty six
With a lovely new wife
I left the slow train to Jerusalem
To start my new life

In the hurly burly of commerce
And the dog eat dog rules
Where only results mattered
And little room for fools.
The Slow Train To Jerusalem
I still think of with gratitude
It gave me a chance to grow
And temper my own attitude.
A failure by their standards,
But I believe I can  say
My life was a success,
Achieved in my own way.







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