On the train this morning
I sat alone, by the window
Where normally there’d be coffee, warm
and all the world’s news in my ear

Instead, I chose dry silence
I chose the undulating wildness
strobing past my view way
I chose high green hills
and glinting mirrored rivers 
I chose lone trees, centuries old
strong against the elements
I chose lambs and sheep
moving in pairs or herds
I chose crumbling village churches
relics from another time
I chose ephemeral clouds casting singular shadows
on a patchwork quilt of fields
I chose my train jockeying with another
for a brief moment on parallel lines
I chose the things closer, moving faster
and the distant, cantering by

Two hours of peace and natural rhythms
two hours of looking beyond my reflection
two hours of seeing this land in all its beauty
two hours, I sorely needed...