A Fair Lady Autumn Evening in 1990

The Silver Meteor from an old postcard I have
Click to see larger. It is worth it!

I remember a night,

an autumn night in a small southern town.

I am sitting on a blanket on the grass

listening to an orchestra

perform old show tunes.

Refrains from My Fair Lady fill this crisp

oh- so- welcome October evening air.

The cool night signals a respite

 from the hot and soggy days

of the long Florida summer.

Adjacent to the band shell 

are the  tracks

on which the Silver Meteor

still makes a daily run.

Now the sky is punctuated by a few early stars.

Suddenly loud rumbling accompanied by harsh light

drones out the orchestra.

The musicians continue to play.

But this train not the orchestra has taken command-

of us who wait on the ground in the dark.

 Bearing down hard and casting its thunder,

the train's high beams  catch us unaware

as though to mock our very reverie.

With a pounding hiss the train disappears into the night.

We take pause, and our attention returns to the music.

A few days later  my mother is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

That night I lie in bed beside my husband; I do not sleep.

 I recall the barreling train from the other night.

I wonder if I  rewrite the evening and leave the train part out

if I can make the news about Mom go away too.

Years pass, and losses mount.

I will come to understand that the train and the orchestra

move together in a rather exquisite harmony.

And I will learn that it is best to make peace

with trains that arrive in the night.