Escape

Before the city collapsed,
when rivers bled
as half shut suitcases
brimmed by the walnut,
spine of hope,
a rookery chittered
above rich muck,
cut passage across
gaping lone fields,
when ships became
the marrow of our country,
sinew plucked,
strung out plastic seal,
gifts for moss mouthed
over puffed children
crammed between cobblestones,
stomachs in knots.
A train will whip through,
planned upon flattening,
steel on the backbone
of rife humankind,
we'll wave, seem merry
and next week, I'll admit,
when carriages clump
at a small city station,
your coming may distract me
from fatality a while.