At eight o’clock on each morning of his long life

Mr Chumoudly-Green caught the train to Norwich

Where he worked

He was always alone

There were no other passengers on the train

He travelled on a pink season ticket

Which he admired greatly as the train passed slowly

Through the Cambridgeshire fields

Mrs Chumoudly-Green was the keeper of the level crossing at Shippea Hill

And was tasked with recording passenger numbers each day

She did this by keeping five pink stones

Hidden in the rockery

Next to the signal box

Her daughter Alice was a very pretty girl

Much admired by artists

She spent most of her time

Planting pink flowers

In the fallow flat fields

That surrounded her home

Her father who was an accountant

Would admire these blooms

During the summer and the early autumn months

On Sunday the station remained closed

As there were no trains in either direction

But Mrs Chumoudly-Green would open the bookstall up at nine o’clock prompt

As she did on each day of the week

In twenty years she had only recorded two sales

One to a trackman repairing the track

And the other to a young curate hopelessly lost

She was helped by Alice until one day her daughter called in sick

I am heavy with child

She said

Which is strange as I have never had sex or even been kissed

Her condition was blamed on the dampness of the season

And the poor display

Of the pink poppy heads

Nine months later her son arrived

She called him George

And he was put to work almost immediately

Polishing the tracks

Which had grown grubby during her confinement

He was an effeminate child

Who favoured pink nails

And country lanes

He was much loved by the gentle engine drivers

Who brought him gifts from the adjoining counties

And occasionally from overseas

One day Mr Chumoudly-Green did not return

From his place of work

Which made him late for the morning train

He had died on his journey home

And missed his home station

Before being discovered at Ely

Stiff as a board and turning green

He was buried in a pink grave

On platform two

And is visited quite often

By his grandson George

Who is slightly confused

By the complex numbering

Of the platforms at Shippea Hill