8/18/2019 Midwest Triptych

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Midwest Triptych.

8/18/2019 Midwest Triptych

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Randolph and Wabash

 There is a song from a musical in his head, Oklahoma, he knows itfrom the time his mother took him to the theatre. He was maybe six

or seven years old, the song dormant for some fteen years, now

tripping forth without warning, without permission, propelled by

some strange and melancholy Will. He looks across to the park. Two

plastic bags like birds nests or lovers cling desperately to the cold

metatarsals of a tree autumn has already stripped bare.

He comes from the outh, a place of blue and wheat!colored

mornings. These bony streets, these dog bite winds are new and

cruel to him. He lingers on the subway steps to scavenge what

warmth he can" barely late afternoon and the sun is already sliding

inexorably into the lake, beyond the trees. He ngers the holes in

his pockets and thinks of Oklahoma, a place he has never been but

#he imagines$ is nothing like the %llinois night descending upon him.

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Red Line

at 'ullerton the reek of piss and fritos, a man(s face like a )*&+snewsreel, a woman(s thighs like a sleek boulevard at -oosevelt a

man wears a trench coat and those disconcerting sneakers with

individual toes tate /ake0 a child pouts and a clutch of plastic

butter1ies perch brightly on her dark braids. she stabs me a

complicitous glance as her fat mother grimaces into an ipod

 2ackson, then 3onroe. nobody wants to sit beside the homeless man

reclined across three seats, his torn white sneakers pressedmournfully against the glass. a married woman with sweet orange

hair asks a man about the harmonica in his pocket. turns out he 4ust

bought it.

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The People Mover

He pointed up at the monorail track, long ngernail like a slash of pink paint against the grey textile of his hands.

6They call it the mover.7

6What does it move87 % asked him. 6/ike freight, cargo87

% looked up at the metal line cutting the sky from the city.

6%t moves people,( he said. 6They call it the people mover.7

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