Thundering Along
the Train Tracks
Autumn – Winter
/20-21
Chapter ll

Why Will It All Be This Way?

An old steam engine whistles and slowly begins to move
along rusty tracks that have seen far too much.
A gentle breeze brushes my hair, and my hand unconsciously
clings tighter to the metal railing of the carriage.

“Good heavens,” my overheated thoughts stir inside me,
“I’ve seen and experienced so much,
but standing at the front of a thundering train? Never.”

The engine begins to pick up speed, the wind grows stronger in my hair,
and as I take a deep breath, I want to shout louder than the train itself:
“Oh, life, you never cease to amaze.”

When I start assembling a collection, I almost never know
where we will photograph it.
What the surroundings will be like.
Which colors will dominate.
Will it be hot or cold? Will it drizzle, or will the late-July sun scorch?

I arrange the clothes like a puzzle, following the desires of my heart
and the bubbling feelings inside me.
And I wait for that blessed day,
when the knowledge that our baby, cradled in our arms for half a year,
will finally be captured.

Autumn–Winter—the largest and most serious collection of our year.
Clothes that breathe the return to work, to offices,
carefully designed to be layered
and still pass the guaranteed “easy mornings” test.

The passing scenery, as I stand for the first time
at the front of an old steam engine,
unintentionally tickles a feeling inside me:
that I am departing into autumn,
a season I generally do not love.

Knowing that in my “luggage” I carry “easy mornings”
and my beloved layering,
I cling tighter to the railing of the train thundering over the tracks
and feel happiness, calm, and certainty
wash over me with the wind.

Autumn will be beautiful.

V.