With a start I awoke from a dreamless sleep
watch hands facing 2 in the morning
(Strange I don't remember
falling asleep at all)
I still have another day of travel ahead

I wandered down the aisles
my soft footfalls tattooing a counterpoint
to the sleepers' languorous breaths,
and saw I was the only one awake.
I pressed my face to the window
trying to make out the dark beyond.
Then without so much as a warning
the train penetrated the earth.

And just as sudden the train stopped its banshee scream,
and burst from the mountain's bowels

And at that same moment I beheld
a mountain reflected
      over a mirror lake
            in the light of a pregnant moon

The scene is etched on my mind,
a Kodak moment no camera can capture -
      the moonlight hugged the silhouetted treetops
            and teased the silver waters of the lake.
                  While in its wake
                        the mountain brooded
                              majestic and perfect
                                    in its iridescent cap of snow.

It lasted two seconds the most
before the pressing locomotive left it all behind

I lay awake for sometime after that
gazing into the void hurtling going past
marveling at the serendipitous moment of beauty
all the more special for mine were the only eyes to have partaken it.

For a moment I was privileged
to have found Eden in the most unlikely place.