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| Daniel Shapiro April 2004 There’s a Possible Person on the Roadbed —MTA Conductor
growing warm, I watch the broad wings of noses speckled with blackheads, the pink bald spots starting to sweat. I remember my summer job, piling dead dogs into hefty-bags, the fur sliding off in fistfuls, or holding an Irish setter while a needle eased in. Home, I feared my door would open before I was done, my pillow a lover whose white shirt I peeled back. The one-night stands those years, I couldn't stop their struggle and thumping in my embrace, their dead weight in my arms. I take a plunge, I take a wild curl into myself, I take up residence with my left hand, I pluck fuzz from my ears or stubborn hairs from my nostrils, keeping at bay their certain spiral toward the grave. Fluorescent light inside the train yellows faces, still I stare my bland amazement at this fellow’s face in the smoked glass pane, full sacs under his eyes raised like dimes, the veil of hair hurrying away reveals my scalp. I can’t conceal with the loudest shout, with tricks of memory and skin (the conductor stating, the passengers glistening, waiting). |
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Out now: |
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The Rail invites you to a reading with Jason Flores-Williams and Brian Carreira, along with musical guest Steve Strunsky of the Lonesome Prairie Dogs. Thurs., Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m. Vox Pop--Flatbush, Brooklyn www.voxpop.net |
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OFF THE RAIL FALL 2005 at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library - Grand Army Plaza |
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The Independent Press Association-NY recently honored The Brooklyn Rail with the following awards: |