I kneel on a worn straw seat,
puffing circles
onto the sooty window.
Like a snorting bull
the train rises
from under the Harlem River
into the South Bronx
onto the elevated tracks.
On a Camels' billboard
boxed by blue sky
a man puffs rings of smoke.
Small windows alive
with blurred bodies zip by.
At Parkchester the sun
broils the red brick buildings
whose corners hold life-sized statues
of the citizens who shaped this city:
fire fighters, cops, carpenters, soldiers.
One tips his hat, another winks.
Under the tracks
cars creep along like fat rats
while my heart thumps
to the grimy rhythm of steel
always grinding greedily forward
taking me out
up
over.
Liz Dolan"s
second poetry manuscript, A Secret of Long Life, which is seeking a publisher, was nominated for the Robert McGovern Prize.Her first poetry collection, They Abide, was published by March Street Press. A five-time Pushcart nominee and winner of The Best of the Web, she has also won an established artist fellowship in poetry and two honorable mentions in prose from the Delaware Division of the Arts. She recently won The Nassau Prize for prose. Liz serves on the poetry board of Philadelphia Stories.