rough draft of part 1 of trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul via train

So we took amtrak to visit our daughters in the Cities. Drove down to Grand Rapids for the 7:30 am train to Chicago -the Pere Marquette

through the windows:
'the easy calf company'
painted on an old barn

easy calf?
cow hoes?

through dirty clouds
and grimy train windows
sunlight on my sketchbook

playing cribbage
on the train
the rock and roll
of 15-2

in the seat behind us
a little girl sings the songs
our daughters sang

I call J to see if she can meet us in Chicago. We last saw her when
she was 13. Her parents had split and when her mother remarried we didn't hear from the family anymore. Since then she has broke her back, came out of the closet, been rejected/accepted/etc by family and friends, etc,etc but she found my daughters here on facebook and we've all talked via email, facebook, livejournal she will try to meet us on the way back on monday.

we arrive in chicago an hour and half late - frozen switch in indiana

walking on the train
i do a little dance

my armrest says
'push button to lower legrest'
what the hell is a legrest?

oh!

i wrote a poem about ravens
i always write poems about ravens
but looking at this one now
in my sketchbook
i read

late night
hidden in the pine
the ravioli's eye

sorry to any ravens out there along the highways

another cribbage poem

on the train
we play cribbage
same as home
i lose

leaving chicago
we wait in the lounge
a young woman and the security cop
joke about her being a vegan
a runner
healthy
he his chubby
like me
i smile along
she is going to run
a fifty mile marathon
in march
in the kettle moraine
country of wisconsin
i'd settle for beer and brats

while we wait
i watch the geese and gulls
on the chicago river
only a little ice
why fly south?

we eat cheese sandwichs
drink bottle water

but i sign up for dinner
in the dining car
at 7:30

we discover the observation car

i write

he loved her with his coyote heart
she returned it with the slow
love of the ant
(ant? doe? scrape the whole thing?)

it looked like a community college
except for the fence
and watch towers

wisconsin

black dots
huddling on the frozen lake
the persistance
of ice fishermen

on the train today
i painted landscapes
my canvas was immense
my painting was fine
but became better
when i added
the rattle, rock and roll
of the train
and the smell of the hot dog
my wife was eating

want to see it?
open my head
it is there


central wisconsin
old farm land
young trees
rows of brown stalks
a distant silo
no house
no barn
marshland
watching the countryside
a little girl colors
leona knits
dregs of tea cool

night on the train
only my reflection
in the window

good dinner on the train
blackened catfish
we eat with two strangers
one is an architect
he will be giving a presentation
in an ice shanty on medicine lake
not just a shanty
but an artshanty
one of many on the lake

we arrive in minneapolis early
our daughters and son-in-law
are still on the way
hugs and kisses
and we pile into the cars
and off to beth and dave's
apartment
life is good1