the world shudders
like an escalator

jolts up a sudden
start men in shirts

duck and bob like
pigeons on a ledge

fishtailed and sly
guzzling what’s given

granite platforms trap
a chlorinated wash of light

their blood ran out here
these rails these lines this trough through
voltage claimed the earth

we owe everything to the shy salted hunger
their own frail timbre
the riverbed stammered with bones