I heard the evening diesel whistle song

a mile of suburban streets away

distilled by distance in the quiet night

the roar beneath whistled air a harmony

denatured of its iron violence;

fundamental pulse of undercarriage

on the ballast, full-throttled baritone

of the engine, tenor groan of timbers

contralto clanging cars and ringing clear

soprano of the steel wheels shearing

at the rail’s endless edge, and knew

that I was home.