AIRPLANE WING ALPENGLOW

Airplane wing alpenglow,
Traces of sunset at 35,000 feet.
Fleeing an ever-receding western horizon
Orange fades to salmon then wingtip gray
As the brushed aluminum of aerilons
Begins to merge with the duskening twilight.
At ground level, with evening full arrived,
Scattered lights delineate civilization,
In the vastness of the intermountain west,
The tenuous human claim on desert lands.
While the occasional larger blob
Or highway-hugging sodium vapor strip,
Only services to emphasize the solitary vastness.