she tells me
it gives her chills
to feel the trains rush past
on their way to places she'll never go

they carry wind
she says
from places she's never been
and she breathes a little deeper
when the rails start to sing

toes to the ledge
she stiffens her wrists
palms to the fury
catching blurs of blacks and whites and blacks and whites
and yellow

she shivers
a shake that loosens her bones
and she sits next to me
settling slow like the flow of her dress
in the fading stream of a north bound torrent

she tells me
there's nothing to be afraid of
and I believe her
though she spoke not a word