Level Crossing

Decades on
and no longer there
I still half wake
moments after midnight
feeling imbedded
diesel electric thunder
shudder up
from subconscious bedrock
through narrow bed springs
hear an air horn's
long elemental blast
and three shorts
crack the night
across the level crossing
one block
down an oiled gravel street
almost open my eyes
to the reflected glare
of a single big headlamp
sweeping sideways and up
across a small room's wall
hear echoes
of metal wheels
singing out
from Ogden division yard
through Calgary
along the Bow River
Montgomery
Bowness
sweeping west
around dark curves
of foothills
toward Exshaw
Canmore
Banff
the Selkirks
Rogers Pass
the Rockies
and further west.