On one of my many recent 8 hr. train trips to Melbourne
during my sister's last illness, there was a glimmer of false hope
in the sky viewed through double glass and my sunglasses.
Closer to the city, all the vital and not so pretty infrastructure
that keeps a large metropolis ticking over,
the somewhat seedy graffiti and torn up wooden sleepers
as well al the new concrete variety to replace them,
refineries,
as well as massive storage tanks.
The setting sun just prior to arrival lit up these man-made
giraffes
and added colour to the containers they shifted, that have
become such an integral part of our modern consumer society
and so to the electric suburban train system and imminent
arrival at the inter-state rail terminal.
Like most cities in the world, the outskirts often are somewhat
less than salubrious.
