OK, now there are two of them....
Union Pacific #1
landscape at 8,000 feet the rocks’ iron bones the
cranial frigid mesas the wind turbines off
kilter quixotic swoosh a
freight train skating across the tableland west of
Cheyenne be-
tween the sagebrush & the fog & cell towers a
tourist log cabin advertising wi fi espresso Native American
gifts
a yellow locomotive skating a
line of rust orange hoppers hauling coal &
graffiti west the
pump jacks’ atavistic nods grazing for natural gas
I will always be lonesome & the radio only broadcasts static
at this elevation
Laramie in a blue fog light has dis-
appeared from the rearview how many miles back a copper
bust of Lincoln hulking over the highway I will always be
lonesome at this elevation
a freight train skating across the
great divide the cold grinding of couplers this morning at
19 degrees at the Rawlins’ siding I will always be
traveling thru time between the blue blue fog & the
sagebrush & a series of semi-trucks clattering &
whooshing over the great divide
which is lone-
someness made stone & wind & a longing for a
home amongst the fog & freight trains
Union Pacific #2
shattered glass sunrise across the Snake River
scarlet broken an osprey’s nest on a phone pole an
aluminum boat a bridge on concrete piers an
island
the sky yellow the clouds gray the
birds black against the horizon in unison
telepathic purposeful rippling
shattered glass sunrise
dispersal
onion skins scattered along the road south of
Annex, Oregon
the Snake River’s
scarlet facets & heartbreak ripples
yellow sky underlined with birds
a phone pole
an aluminum boat I am traveling in various
& contradictory directions west & east a-
cross a shattered river under
this shattered sky
Jack Hayes
© 2010