Page 103 - Contrast2015

Alexandra Seiler

on a bridge in New Jersey, sea-green
metal letters declare
TRENTON MAKES: THE WORLD TAKES.
as we rattle over tracks in Springfield
and in Wallingford,
through graffitied remnants
of the early industrial revolution,
chain-link fences, shattered windows,
peeling paint and rusted piping,
I think that I see
what they mean.

but in Meriden, Connecticut,
on a crumbling brick building across
from the station, a glass mosaic screams
in bright technicolor into the gray,
a single word, a battle cry,
a beacon in the morning fog:
ART.

the train pulls out, steaming onward,
away from the hollow-eyed figures
on the platform, who smoke cigarettes
and raise their hands in farewell. I lean my head
against the window and watch them recede.
the rainbow glass
glitters in my peripheral vision,
long after we have left Meriden behind.

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