Kansas Sunset ....

What if I / you / we  made all the difference in the world? God!

I say that as I look out at these mythic towering Clouds stretch across the plains, it’s 7:39 PM
on Amtrak Train #4, the South West Chief, enroute from LA to Chicago. Looking across the plains from the observation car and I imagine some 150 years ago some pioneer wagon train looking back at this
primal landscape. In an age with no Internet, no none of that could even be conceived of not the slightest notion (in my conception)..

Just a world of intense life, life decisions against the backdrop of the immensity of … God!  …  or the Mystery of Life.

Just like today. Just like it ever was. In the observation car. Rain has sprinkled against the west facing windows,  a little orange and yellow of the setting  of the sun also in the windows,  if I turn and crane my neck backwards left about where the Amish woman who is reading a book wearing her white bonnet and 100 year old style wear. Directly behind me the party of three happy Black women slamming down Dominos with some soul  music playing ….

  And now the setting sun on my left has come shining clear through the clouds. They moved to give room right on the horizon and the light shining through the raindrops on the train windows and I mention that to the Amish woman and the three woman whose game is over but they pause to look…. 'Isn’t that beautiful!' And take pictures on their I Phone and the Amish woman stands and stares through the golden rain drops and yes imagine…    A few lightening strikes off to the dark right side….

   And I look back and that sun send off rays of gold and hohum just another sunset and as they say someone's sunset is someone else’s sunrise.

   Let me see what was I going to say about the world ?.. or maybe just the beautiful events of the day.

   Just another day hoping to emerge from tired brain and innerspection… and it will have to do because I didn’t go beyond little vignettes of cool humanity or else the desire to run from the aforementioned humanity. As I have finally done the modern soul music sort of a rap thing with it’s rhythmic bang … bang just too much and I retreated to the far corner facing the still glowing post sun fading glow…

  Remembering hours before... Albuquerque we had 30 minutes to stretch and to hustle down a classic Albuquerque street scene in old town. What’s a classic Albuquerque street scene? just old paved over America Midday in May passing some street people with their full carts and their sad lives past large parking lots with no cars some newish apartment complex.. probably mixed ‘affordable’ housing Hah! What do I know? I ducked into the Silver Market off of Silver Street see if I can get some improvement on the Train Snack Bar Food…

  They ran out of their Hebrew Kosher Hot Dogs they ran out of their Sabra Hummus and Pretzels ..they being Amtrak… but back at Silver Street I could see this was not the greatest level of gourmet choice but a 2.99 Tuna Fish Sandwich looked like a deal… and a few other Kickory BarBQ chips .. make that Hickory but Kickory sounds good to… Anyhow just a touch of human … in line with the checker dude short hair but tattooed pretty strongly over his arms, maybe in his 40’s I mention “hey let me grab one of these papers find out what is going on in Albuquerque”  Newspapers. He laughs… “Ha! Nothing!” Then I decide to tell him about the big  Destroy Fascism graffitti I saw as I was pondering the absurd mess of America with our parking lots and wealth and consumer and loss from Nature and I laugh “Fascism?!
Hah!  What a joke, take a look at our lives. What is this Ism we Is? “

Anyways my new good friend in the Check Out moment goes yeah  ‘ that’s our Millenials!’ Yup and me a deadbeat Boomer still hoping for some kind of redemption or at least the cojones to laugh out loud and scare my own Blues away on any old day. ( I can do that! But a real good laugh ahh a great laugh!!  That would be good.)