Scenes Outside a Train Window

Buffaloes and children sit submerged in chocolate ponds;
under searing sun, half bent women over neon paddy fields;
tiny lime butterfly fluttering to the rhythm of our chugging train;
walls of water bursting from an overflowing dam - into arid, rocky land;
lillies in chinese white over smudges of jade and emerald leaves;
distant smoky mountains merge into moist clouds -seeking relief from the heat;
tall copper grasses with feathery silver fluffs bending in the breeze;
tracts of charred waste land around smoky factories;
small white temple of perfect symmetry mirrored in a village lake;
a jumble of mangy brown huts-thatched roofs and skeleton cows in the yard;
a line of waving children as they squat for toilet along the tracks;
single tall palms, erect, proud, crowned;
turbaned man in bright kurta and his veiled bride, sailing away on a bicycle;
two dogs running in opposite directions on a lonely, dry track of red mud;
white egrets in flight in a sunset over green chequered fields;
arid sandbars of scruff within slate, sluggish rivers;
groves of bamboo, banana, papayas, emerald vines with gold yellow blossoms;
fluttering clotheslines in rainbow - tibetan flags of the poor;
a flock of swallows sailing in choreographed harmony;
lush tribal women of earthy grace striding with loads of kindle on their heads;
villages festooned in orange flags - warnings for the times ahead;
large tracts of sweet sugarcane;
cool evening air, gold sunset rushing past in torn puddles;
a game of soccer by the village young;
catching fish from small overrun streams in square nets on bamboo cross;
ink-blue night and stars reigning bright.