rocking in the darkness and repeating her name

Like a freight train out of Colorado, like two hundred cars of coal,
grief starts slow. With bangs and impossible bendings, screech and sparks,
grief comes out of the west, down the long slope of Nebraska, down the long slope
of the year, smoothly and picking up speed, heavy, unstoppable,
with its slow sway and obsessive rattle, down towards Omaha,
sounding its whislte. The daisies turn up white faces and tremble,
and slowly, slowly, the coal dust settles.