first night home

as I lay abed
in the distance the wailing whistle of a freight train
seeps through the thin cool air
familiar that sound
I recall dozens of other places
I have lived with the same soothing call

as the sun seeps through the barely opened window
warning of a new day
the who-who-whoing of a morning dove
from the depth of the sunshine
creeps sleepily in

outside
this sprawling desert city lumbers bearlike
to its feet
traffic flows steadily down Lead and
Coal in their respective one way directions
familiar flows still undisrupted
to downtown
away from downtown
away from the mountains
toward the mountains
glowing apple and watermelon
in front of the rising star