Somewhere Between Lillehammer and Trondheim

My body rocks back and forth

as the train weaves its way through the lumpy landscape

 of still, wintry mountains in the darkening night.

Northern Norway in early March.

 

The moon glows as it rises over curved silhouettes.

I watch it from the window.

Bright. Lonely. Silver orb.

 

The few other passengers in this carriage are asleep.

 

Then I see another light in the distance:

a curious, flickering, reddish hue.

 

My face presses hard on the cold glass,

to bring me closer to the apparition.

 

A huge man is sitting, cross-legged, by a giant bonfire

warming his overgrown hands.

I know it is icy out there.

He does not look up, though I see a half-smile appear

through his unkempt, auburn beard.

 

He knows I can see him.

 

I continue to stare as the train trundles

past the isolated, impossible,

lay-by of this mythic being.

*

Biography

Lorraine Whelan is a Canadian writer and visual artist based in Ireland. Her prose, poetry, and art criticism has appeared in Ireland, Canada, USA, Luxembourg and online Her artwork is included in public, private and corporate collections in Ireland, USA, Canada, UK, Belgium, and Australia.