THE long train carries rocks 

            along the snaking tracks 

                                    that edge between the square 

            plots of downtown Tucson 

                                                            There’s ice
                                                            on the desert

                                                                                    streets this morning, 

                                    dirt piles on corners by warehouses 

                                                dirt hauled from here,

                                                                                    put there, 

                                    every plot assigned its value, 

                        its land, its story, 

                                                            I know I’m only 

                                                            on my way from here to there, 

                                    look in windows, wait on streetlights, 

                        grab a warm 

                                                corner indoors 

The train moves past brand new apartments, 

                                    bright glassy restaurants, 

                                    office buildings, construction sheds, 

                        dirt raised up from there to here 

            I know how people talk about things 

                                                            and why others
                                                            end up wandering 

                        towards something 

                                                outside to hold them 

                                                                        to the icy earth 

                        towards all the ways to huddle together 

An airplane circles, drops streaks of confetti 

                                    that fall towards the scrub 

                                                            and the rocks 

            Now the train has at last gone by 

                        I hear its horn

                                                in the distance 

                        beyond the insurance company high rise