9598. NORTH AMERICAN TIMELINE

NORTH AMERICAN TIMELINE

There's nothing but the breakdown here for

me; the wonderland is over. Every crevasse 

and soothing valley has been filled. Cars line 

the waterway and the waterway sinks the cars.

 I tremble to obfuscate the reality of what I see.

-

I was born here, not a traveler, not just passing 

through. What else can I say? It doesn't hold.

I remember the rail cars passing my house, the

steam locomotives hissing and putting out all

that smoke  -  the ladies in town complaining 

always how it ruined their laundry. My mother,

going on about the tiny burn-holes from hot

embers. Myrtle and Jim, across the street, in

a fury about the marred finish of their cars.

-

We kids, we just chased the smoke; that big 

billowing cloud of embers as the train passed.

Each time, the chug-chug of neighborhood

noise and that cloud of evening smoke,

twirling and stretching a it passed these

neighboring homes.