0 Our Trip to San Jose, Ca

For my son Gavin

Today we rock
on the tracks of the train
that takes us north.

Excitement prevented sleep the night before,
and exhaustion displaces the joy
we anticipated as the minutes slip past.

You hold the frame of the window
trying to capture the images of the land,
in a memory too young and weak
to survive the inundation
of information filling your mind
with needless wants, trivial
desires, cavernous corruption,
and gratuitous consumption.

The serenity of the motion
Beneath you and beyond you
Push you into my arms.

What do you dream of when you escape fantasy?
Fields of grass bending to an unseen will—
a lonely tree waiting for a family—
the telephone wires’ endless pursuit
to find someone to connect with

--Aaron A., 34