I have been watching and re-watching YouTube
footage of a train ploughing through deep snow
in Arthur’s Pass, on its way to Christchurch.
I watch for its silence. Then, for its whiteness,
when the snow hits the camera.
Nothing else has touched the snow. It obscures
the machinery, softens its hard edges,
creates delay. It sounds like, ‘Shhh’.
It sounds far away. The train is a dog with its snout
on the trail. The train cannot hurt anyone now.
It is soft as pillows. It is trying not to wake
the trees that are sleeping under the weight
of all that snow. So, quietly. So quietly, it goes.