THE RAILROAD FROM SHU

	  "May I ask if you expect to return,
	   traveling so far west?" 
		   --Li Po, "The Road to Shu is Hard"



  Nightfall, Qinling Mountains, Sichuan

In the village fireworks crackle as the train goes past.
Grave mounds erode beneath hillsides pinpricked with cooking fires.
A wooden horsecart waits at the tracks near
nuclear cooling towers.


   Dawn, Yellow River Valley, Shaanxi

Another boiler chimney vents more black smoke into the dark.
On the coal heap a comb red as the east divulges a black rooster.
Two joggers escort the train along the Silk Road's final miles
past Xingping's church, translated from the puszta,
sunburst cross and all.