Limited
I AM riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains
Of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air
Go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men
And women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall
Pass to ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he
Answers: “Omaha.”





Related poetry:
- Omaha RED barns and red heifers spot the green Grass circles around Omaha-the farmers Haul tanks of cream and wagon loads […]...
- That the Science of Cartography Is Limited -and not simply by the fact that this shading of Forest cannot show the fragrance of balsam, The gloom of […]...
- Sunset From Omaha Hotel Window INTO the blue river hills The red sun runners go And the long sand changes And to-day is a goner […]...
- Answers I keep my answers small and keep them near; Big questions bruised my mind but still I let Small answers […]...
- Killers I AM singing to you Soft as a man with a dead child speaks; Hard as a man in handcuffs, […]...
- Convalescent How shall I wail, that wasn’t meant for weeping? Love has run and left me, oh, what then? Dream, then, […]...
- People With Proud Chins I TELL them where the wind comes from, Where the music goes when the fiddle is in the box. Kids-I […]...
- Never Born THE TIME has gone by. The child is dead. The child was never even born. Why go on? Why so […]...
- Shirt I remember once I ran after you and tagged the fluttering shirt of you in the wind. Once many days […]...
- Losers IF I should pass the tomb of Jonah I would stop there and sit for awhile; Because I was swallowed […]...
- 16-bit Intel 8088 chip with an Apple Macintosh You can’t run Radio Shack programs In its disc drive. Nor can a Commodore 64 Drive […]...
- Grey Hairs These are ashes of treasures: Of hurt and loss. These are ashes in face of which Granite is dross. Dove, […]...
- Pods PEA pods cling to stems. Neponset, the village, Clings to the Burlington railway main line. Terrible midnight limiteds roar through […]...
- Let Love Go On LET it go on; let the love of this hour be poured out till all the answers are made, the […]...
- Young A thousand doors ago When I was a lonely kid In a big house with four Garages and it was […]...
- The Red Blaze is the Morning The Red Blaze is the Morning The Violet is Noon The Yellow Day is falling And after that is none […]...
- Bath A MAN saw the whole world as a grinning skull and Cross-bones. The rose flesh of life shriveled from all […]...
- One Cigarette No smoke without you, my fire. After you left, Your cigarette glowed on in my ashtray And sent up a […]...
- The Year IA STORM of white petals, Buds throwing open baby fists Into hands of broad flowers. IIRed roses running upward, Clambering […]...
- At leisure is the Soul At leisure is the Soul That gets a Staggering Blow The Width of Life before it spreads Without a thing […]...
- How many schemes may die How many schemes may die In one short Afternoon Entirely unknown To those they most concern The man that was […]...
- Somewhere upon the general Earth Somewhere upon the general Earth Itself exist Today The Magic passive but extant That consecrated me Indifferent Seasons doubtless play […]...
- Chicago Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, […]...
- May 24, 1980 I have braved, for want of wild beasts, steel cages, Carved my term and nickname on bunks and rafters, Lived […]...
- Ghost There is a jaggle of masonry here, on a small hill Above the gray-mouthed Pacific, cottages and a thick-walled tower, […]...
- No Man can compass a Despair No Man can compass a Despair As round a Goalless Road No faster than a Mile at once The Traveller […]...
- Pull A String, A Puppet Moves each man must realize That it can all disappear very Quickly: The cat, the woman, the job, The front tire, […]...
- Sestina I wandered o’er the vast green plains of youth, And searched for Pleasure. On a distant height Fame’s silhouette stood […]...
- The House Of Dust: Introduction THE HOUSE OF DUST A Symphony BY CONRAD AIKEN To Jessie NOTE . . . Parts of this poem have […]...
- Chant For Dark Hours Some men, some men Cannot pass a Book shop. (Lady, make your mind up, and wait your life away.) Some […]...
- Docker There, in the corner, staring at his drink. The cap juts like a gantry’s crossbeam, Cowling plated forehead and sledgehead […]...
- Prayers After World War WANDERING oversea dreamer, Hunting and hoarse, Oh daughter and mother, Oh daughter of ashes and mother of blood, Child of […]...
- A Sphinx Close-mouthed you sat five thousand years and never Let out a whisper. Processions came by, marchers, asking questions you Answered […]...
- These are the Signs to Nature's Inns These are the Signs to Nature’s Inns Her invitation broad To Whosoever famishing To taste her mystic Bread These are […]...
- Gethsemane 1914-18 The Garden called Gethsemane In Picardy it was, And there the people came to see The English soldiers pass. […]...
- Beat! Beat! Drums! 1 BEAT! beat! drums!-Blow! bugles! blow! Through the windows-through doors-burst like a ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter […]...
- Colors Passing Through Us Purple as tulips in May, mauve Into lush velvet, purple As the stain blackberries leave On the lips, on the […]...
- There's been a Death, in the Opposite House There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House, As lately as Today I know it, by the numb look Such […]...
- 1926 The porchlight coming on again, Early November, the dead leaves Raked in piles, the wicker swing Creaking. Across the lots […]...
- Sonnet VI: How Many Paltry Things How many paltry, foolish, painted things, That now is coaches trouble every street, Shall be forgotten, whom no Poet sings, […]...