All Aboard!

Time tables & minutemen rush you from La Crosse into a metal tube filled-to-the-teeth with strangers. Find your seat, there on the left. Through the window, the crest & trough of power lines--a silhouette in reverse behind a sapphire sky. Landscapes roll by while the passengers remain motionless.  Each with her own story, each with nothing but stories & old folks & everything else all at once.

Dorothy will introduce herself. She tells you she can give you a ride to Port Townsend, help you with the ferry. She shares some vegetables, takes off her stocking cap. Zander hasn't slept in days. The oncoming trains are flashbangs of light & silent violence. Push here, door opens. Pay seven dollars, get a drink. Sparrows tightrope a rusty fence.

Flat-forever Montana turned into Rocky Mountain bliss. Shelby, Whitefish, Libby, Montana. Snapping pictures of people snapping pictures through the stained windows of the evening train.   It's nearly twelve o'clock, and Central Time has changed to Mountain has changed to Pacific. Try to sleep on a reclining seat. Seattle will be here on the count of three.




Whitefish, MT

best,

-m