A Poem from a Train

I lived in Russia from late 1992 to 1994. I lived in a city in Far Eastern Russia called Khabarovsk. For about a year of the time I was there I would regularly travel by train to a neighbroing city about 3 hours away called Birobidjan. Here is a poem I wrote on the train in March of 2004.

The Melting Snow of the Infinte Plain

Written on a train from Birobidjan to Khabarovsk

Dusk inserts contrast to the endless white before me

Small patchs of forest punctuate the crystalline desolation

Brush and barren soil testify

That the Herculean winter is mortal after all

A days journey nears completion

A circuitous route

Ends like it began

Thoughts of far and near

Of important and trivial

speed through the minds eye

Occasionally stopping.

At the stops

The view becomes clear and definite

Then slowly

Movement begins again

The everyday life becomes a blur.

Night has come to the winter plain.

Morning and Spring inch closer.

And the train rolls on.