Plane travel is different.
Pillow clouds, quilt farms,
flat sheet ocean.

Trains allow for fast flash photo,
details suddenly appearingdissappearing,
close observations, rushed by
but registered on the retina.

Today it’s the Metro North Hudson River Line.
Pin tailed duck, hunting herons
frozen on the rotting pillars by track side
among the gulls, egrets and geese.
Lilly ponds, clogs of water chestnuts,
little tug boat pulling huge barges,
million dollar cruiser cutting
a north bound wake to who knows where.

One might read a book, of course,
experiencing existence vicariously.

Or gaze out the window over the
big picture of the valley,
lit with the light of a
Fredrick Church Catskill,
but missing the particulars.

Better to focus, intent on a
split seconds scene,
just to sense it go by.