Ghosts in the Pawtucketville night

Tonight has everything — a full
moon, fruit bats, cane fires at all
points of the compass. Plus the
noise of trains as they pass less
than 100 meters away from where
we live. A compendium of mem-
ories, that can be arranged in a
rough chronological order. Ob-
viously the moon in all its phases
has always been there; the fruit
bats first seen in Sydney fifty or
so years ago. The cane fires are
a local phenomenon — thirteen
years of them, June through to
December, to January in a wet
year.  But it's the trains that are 
the common cord, stretching back 
to childhood. Different places, & 
a variety of differing purposes 
& methods of propulsion. Here
heard throughout both day &
night. In the cities, with much 
more crowd noise & at a greater 
distance, they seem only to exist
at night, the rattling of wheels on
metal tracks, the shriek of whistles.