Standing
Maybe a little suicidal
Towering
Submarines of oil
Endless piston line
Exploding a few feet
From every organ of my body
Again
Again
Again
Black, bulk, beyond comprehension
Full out freight
Neck hairs on end
Hammering anvils in my ears
Glinting toward Milwaukee
Hard, animate wheels
Chant at a roar
Railing a warning:
You should move
I wonder at the platform’s
Not shaking
Its capacity to withstand,
The closeness of wood pillars
I sense a quiet sparrow
On green gutter
Air concusses
Quakes
I do not move
—
Brad Vogel is the author of the poetry collections Find Me in the Feral Pockets (featured in The New Yorker in spring 2024) and Broad Meadow Bird. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and various poetry publications. He founded NYC Poets Afloat, a residency and reading series aboard ships. He lives and canoes in Gowanus, Brooklyn, which reminds him of his one-time home in post-Katrina New Orleans.
