Tuesday Poem – Train Window, by Lola Ridge

English: Postcard picture of Branchville Railr...
English: Postcard picture of Branchville Railroad Station, Connecticut, USA, ca. 1900 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

TRAIN WINDOW 

Small towns
Crawling out of their green shirts…
Tubercular towns
Coughing a little in the dawn…
And the church…
There is always a church
With its natty spire
And the vestibule–
That’s where they whisper:
Tzz-tzz… tzz-tzz… tzz-tzz…
How many codes for a wireless whisper–
And corn flatter than it should be
And those chits of leaves
Gadding with every wind?
Small towns
From Connecticut to Maine:
Tzz-tzz… tzz-tzz…tzz-tzz…

Lola Ridge (Rose Emily Ridge, 1873 – 1941) was an anarchist poet and political activist. She was born in Dublin and lived in Australia and New Zealand before moving to the United States.  She was well known in her day as an advocate for immigrants and the working class, as well as for her poetry.  She wrote five books of poetry and edited for avant-garde magazines Others and Broom.

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/ridge/bio.htm

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