From the Train

See through the windows the bare branches
   from the rolling train.
The stream alongside the tracks flows towards the river:
   Giving soil. taking soil, gathering smaller waters,
      Seeming unchanged,
…
The sun has broken through the clouds,
   although we still cannot see it.  The sky is
blue and white and gray.  Some of the fields
   and scattered houses across the stream
      are sunlit.
The broad stream, we named the 'Juanita.'  Our maps say it's 
   a river, an important tributary.
The light is enough to make the water
   almost white, with subdued reflections
      of the sky and the clouds.
The reflections of the trees along the farther shore
   are less subdued, and sharper.
Many thin white streaks run diagonally across the stream.
   You try to focus on one and see another.
      The stream flows smoothly.
A branch juts out of the water and makes
   a dark ‘v.’  Beneath the borrowed colors 
       and white streaks
the water is black.

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