A rich pumpkinflesh moon rises

slowly over the Vancouver Harbour

Outlining the Lions Gate Bridge and the now

minuscule cars making their way across Burrard Inlet,

unembarrassed by their moonlit exposure to a North

Shore whose buildings flicker with the occasional flash

of cameras

trying the impossible, to capture a moon. . . how?

How. . . on earth?

The BC Railroad’s Evening Starlight

travels quietly, smoothly home,

winding and wending its way among the best that West Vancouver

has to offer. Some crew peer out their diner’s windows while

in another car, cooks stand in the open air, taking in the

balmy, moonlit evening

from their perch in their

soiled, white aprons.

And the mostly beautiful people of many ages

walking up and down the Seawall and

through the balmy autumn evening air

flavored by earthy Farsi sounds

laugh, and tease, and share, and console

one

another.