ENTERTAINMENT
The girl on the train Cowboy Poetry by Lois Garci
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WRITTEN BY LOIS GARCIA
If I were a cowgirl I’d wake up each day say hello to the sunrise and be on my way. I’d get on my horse, feel the wind in my hair, hear a train in the distance... going somewhere... On that far-off train (leaving Union, I bet) there’d be someone like me (someone I’d never met). She’d be going to work in a building of steel, thinking hard about tech stuff or the next business deal. I’d catch the girl’s profile, just a flash on the rails. She’d look up, our eyes’d meet, and I’d swear her face pales. Her eyes are familiar. I’ve seen them before. There’s a longing within them I see in the mirror. As the sight and the sounds of the train fade away, I come out of my reverie, and back to today.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LOIS GARCIA
As you all might have guessed, I’m the girl on the train. Concrete and city streets are my natural terrain. I work in Salt City (90 minutes each way) doing cyber-security on Linux all day. But when a small farm is taken
through eminent domain, I see the injustice. I feel their pain. So I buy local produce, and I wear cowboy boots! To me, it’s like watering America’s roots. My parents escaped ruthless tyranny
to kiss this ground this land of the free.
is where I call home.
I believe in the eagle, and the rattlesnake’s bite. My freedom is something for which I do fight.
Preserving our heritage is a trust and an art. I salute all you cowboys and cowgirls... I’m a cowgirl at heart.
I vote in elections, Stars’n’Stripes grace my lawn, and I thank God this country
NOTE: Union Station in Ogden, UT was formerly the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads. Western Wasatch - November 2020 37
