30 July 1999

A Day on the CTA
December 18, 1998

Team l: Molly Stentz, William Gillespie, Paul Kotheimer

Part 3

South Side

The South Side IS THE Underside
The Green Line south from
Roosevelt to Garfield
Only hints at how many boarded-up
Crumbling and littered redbricks
And brownstones with tumble-
Down fire escapes there might be here.

On every RAPID-TRANSIT LINE, the passenger
Stakes out a territory
-- a stationary locus, in
Motion -- cities are like this.

& the South Side is SPECKLED
With copper-green domes and spires
Toothless maws of busted-out glass
Rusted Buicks with replacement quarter-panels
Liquor and cigarettes SMILING at you from billboards.

WHO IS IT that climbs the dizzying billboard ladder, though?
OR who calls off the stops over the squawk box
From 95th to Howard and home again?
OR who sells body oils from car to car out of
A thin, glossy briefcase?
OR who raised that scaffolding of dark black iron?
OR who herds the pigeons together with the flick
Of a crouton, or likewise sends
Them flapping scramble-scatter along the pavement?

Elsewhere they are tearing everything down to rebuild, repave,
Reshingle, refinish.
They are reinventing it all as the same, only newer, but here,
They leave square miles of train rail and corrugated steel behind, &
Even though no bombs are dropping here, it is become a wasteland

.-Paul Kotheimer