Selected Poems
Half-Way Home
Above sleeping heads
sets of steel wheels roll
into the next New York midnight.
J train cars amble-rock along
pull cranky on elevated rails.
Riders sit face to black, head home
banging and sliding, back into bone.
Cars shunt to jolt, absorbing shock
connect unsteady lightning rods
reflect off passing third floor windows.
Screech and squeal wheel into
hard sweeping turns, shed sparks
under pop at only certain sections
to signal in-between stations.
Keep pace, in and out of Brooklyn.
Next stop, Elderts or Essex?
sets of steel wheels roll
into the next New York midnight.
J train cars amble-rock along
pull cranky on elevated rails.
Riders sit face to black, head home
banging and sliding, back into bone.
Cars shunt to jolt, absorbing shock
connect unsteady lightning rods
reflect off passing third floor windows.
Screech and squeal wheel into
hard sweeping turns, shed sparks
under pop at only certain sections
to signal in-between stations.
Keep pace, in and out of Brooklyn.
Next stop, Elderts or Essex?
