A Train in Bangladesh

I'm sitting on a train in Bangladesh
Waiting for the man next to me
To admit that we're lost

And we must be lost
Because we're here
On a train in a country
I couldn't even find on a map

I'd know the general idea
But when push came to shove
I'd be lost

Much like I am now

How many times
How many times can you think the same thing
Read the same pages
Of the same book
You've been trying to finish
For the past two weeks

I keep looking over at him
Wondering when he's going to speak
He hasn't spoken for three days
So I suppose I shouldn't hold my breath
But nevertheless I look over
Again and again
And wonder where we're heading

I sigh audibly
I cough several times
If I could work up a sneeze
I would

Where are we going?
Why are we here?
What is the point of all this?

We were supposed to be going on an adventure
Well, this certainly is an adventure
If by 'adventure' you mean
Lost, broke, and terrified

I'd say I want to go home
But the problems at home
Are actually quite similar
To the problems we face
Being on this train

We don't talk
Not nearly enough anyway
We don't listen
When we do talk
And I'm guilty
As well as innocent
Where that's concerned

More than anything else
We're bored
We're bored with each other
And I'm not sure how to fix that

So I sit back and read the page
Read the same page
Again and again

Looking for something
I must have missed before

This book is supposed to be brilliant
It got great reviews
But I don't like it

Everyone tells me I'm supposed to like it
Everyone says so
But I don't
But rather than just say I don't
And toss it out the window
Into the fields of Bangladesh
Or give it to the little boy two cars over
Who told me when I boarded
That he's trying to learn English
I keep reading and keep reading
And keep reading

Thinking it must be me
Thinking I must be wrong
For not being happy with it

People told me Bangladesh
Was just what we needed
A complete change
A change of pace and place
A new surrounding

But it seems to me
That in order for a place
To change your life
You'd have to have never been anywhere
Aside from where you are

I've been to France
I've been to Japan
I even went to Uganda once
Back when I was young
And would go anywhere

So it's not that I hate traveling
It's just that it doesn't alter me anymore
It doesn't shake my soul
The way it used to

My friend Linda went to a conference last year
In Nebraska, or Iowa, somewhere like that
And she came back saying
She had been changed

She was convinced it was Nebraska or Iowa
Or wherever it was that she went
But I knew what it really was

She'd just never been anywhere before
So going anywhere would have been life-changing
She might as well have walked down the street
And gone to the post office

But I still agreed to go
When the man sitting next to me
Suggested Bangladesh

It's not his fault

Who knew they'd lose our reservations?
Who knew we'd be robbed--not once, but several times?
Who knew we'd hop a train and hope for the best?
Who could know any of that?

We're going to ride on, I suppose
What else can you do?
But just ride on

Although I'll admit
I'm a little nervous
About that tunnel up there

Once we're in it
I won't be able to read
Or to see the man sitting next to me
Or even the countryside of Bangladesh

And once we're in
Who knows if we're ever coming out?