15,723. THEY TELL ME

THEY TELL ME

They tell me I was born in the

age of steam, I can do nothing

but believe them  -  though it

seems so wrong. I do not feel

that 1949 was the age of steam.

-

Things around me were wobbly;

cars were big and round? The

skyline, looked back at now,

seems thin and insipid in a

contrast to today? What words

were there left to say : smoke

and pallor, smog and noise. All

that too was very different.

-

The thimble that the industrial

shirtwaist seamstress held was

a certain and very sure thing: In

the age of unions, magic, and

expectations of what was yet 

to come. The long, loft hallways

were often dark and dingy.

-

Yes, maybe then, yes. I was born

in the Age of Steam  -  but just

before it left the harbor for today.