Amtrak Amish
By Jenny McBride
The Empire Builder was running
several hours late
on tracks sold off to a foreign freight line.
There were Amish people in every car,
young couples with small children,
stoic simple bonnets and
grandparents
And every time I smiled at one of them
I got a deep, true smile in return,
not the scowl of most moderns
or the fake grin of post-moderns
but a just return.
And I started thinking about them
eschewing technology, and wondered
without the internet
how much they know about
the tolls the smog of industry has taken
on our weather.
Farmers, they, are raising crops
in a climate that will be
farmed no more.
And these, zero emissions people.
Jenny McBride’s writing has appeared in SLAB, Sou’wester, Common Ground Review, Streetwise, The California Quarterly and other publications. She makes her home in the rainforest of southeast Alaska.